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Dotcom had bought while waiting for the larger property purchase to go through, had also been seized.

They had no money. “We had to figure out how to sustain the family, how to make sure there was food on the table,” he said. Costs in the Philippines were much lower than New Zealand. “With a few thousand dollars a month you could go and rent a nice apartment and make sure the kids have enough food,” he says. The idea was fleeting, and Mona became resolute.

When he was finally able to call, he found there had been unexpected kindness from local businesses, neighbours and business contacts. The arrest and press interest which followed appeared to have finally broken the ice. The formerly aloof neighbours at last welcomed the Dotcoms, with food parcels at the outset and then at village meetings and school fundraisers.

“Neighbours came around to help . . . and they brought her food. Our butcher where we always went to buy our breakfast stuff, he sent us a daily package. We have neighbours bringing bread.”

With all the cars seized, Mona was trapped at home, with no way to travel to and from the hospital for checks as the pregnancy progressed. Again, a neighbour stepped in to help with the loan of a car. “There were lots of good people from around the neighbourhood who sent us lots of nice things.”

It was during this time Dotcom’s white knight emerged — Tony Lentino, New Zealand businessman and the owner of the domain registry Instra. Lentino comes from the best of geek traditions — he got his first computer when he was aged eight, didn’t fit in at school and left aged 15. Work on Instra began about five years later and fortune followed.

The pair had met before the raid. Lentino loves flying, Dotcom loves cars. When Dotcom was looking for somewhere to race his cars, he fetched up at Lentino’s and the pair got on. The airstrip use led to an invitation to Dotcom Mansion to play poker.

“I was looking into buying Tony’s company Instra,” said Dotcom. There was a natural fit, he said, between a domain registration company and Megaupload. “We had so many eyeballs with Megaupload it made perfect sense to start advertising a domain registrar.”

The raid intervened in that process, as it did with Dotcom’s entire life. And although many who had pledged friendship or support became unnerved by the presence of the FBI, or uninterested once Dotcom’s fortune was seized, Lentino was the opposite.

Dotcom called Mona one day from prison and she said: “Tony is here.” Dotcom wanted to talk to him, and she handed the phone over.
“What is happening with your mansion?” Lentino asked.
Dotcom replied; “I’ve got no idea man. We’re probably going to lose that.”

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