On 19 January 2012 the United States Department of Justice seized and shut down the file hosting site Megaupload.com and commenced criminal cases against its owners and others. Worldwide, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Kim Schmitz (Founder), Finn Batato (CMO), Mathias Ortmann (CTO and co-founder), with Bram van der Kolk arrested by the Organised and Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand. Their bail request was denied in New Zealand court as it was opposed by US authorities on the case. On January 20 Hong Kong Customs froze more than HK$300 million (US$39 million) in assets belonging to the company.