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In a Sunday evening email, he wrote to Bickle saying: “I have spoken to Dotcom and passed on the good news. He is absolutely delighted and extends his thanks to all those involved in getting Mona and himself across the line.”

In hindsight, as the focus of attempts to extradite him to the US, Dotcom’s view is different. He now suspects the barriers to immigration were removed to place the family in New Zealand where they were more accessible to the United States than they would have been in China-controlled Hong Kong.

“Remember, I gave them a deadline,” he said. “November 1 or we move somewhere else. Three days before that deadline the SIS gave them approval. The thing that makes sense why they did that is because the Americans asked them to. The Americans said, ‘Well, it’s much easier for us to extradite him from New Zealand than from anywhere else,’ and (the SIS) changed their mind.”

The residency visas were issued in Hong Kong on 18 November 2010. The granting of the visas was briefed to then-Minister of Immigration Jonathan Coleman, who had been kept updated about Dotcom’s interest in New Zealand throughout the course of the application — and also the risks. There was a final scene in this act of the drama a month later, after Dotcom had arrived in New Zealand, when Cooper disclosed the tycoon had committed technical breaches of Hong Kong share-buying rules by holding too many shares in a company which designed the first type of electronic cigarette. He had bought slightly over the five per cent ownership threshhold allowed in Hong Kong before legal reporting requirements came in. It cost $4000 in fines and court costs but sent Immigration NZ into a spin for four months. After all its efforts to dispel the myths of Dotcom, it was presented with fresh allegations of wrongdoing. His residency was in jeopardy, Cooper was warned, before being told the residency would stand. Grigg wrote into the Immigration NZ file his concern media would learn of the incident. “This is a further incident which, if in the public domain, would be likely to attract negative comment.”

Again, Immigration NZ officials wrote a detailed briefing for Minister of Immigration Jonathan Coleman. The 18 February 2011 briefing detailed Dotcom’s original application, the rumours and allegations it had worked through to the eventual award of residency in return for a $10 million investment in New Zealand. The briefing also included a section which dealt with the new allegations — although it had some information excised with reference to the Official Information Act. The section of the briefing was removed using the same designation which had been used to delete details of the FBI investigation, raising the possibility Coleman was being freshly briefed on the US investigation. Coleman’s office, and his successors, have always refused to explain

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