Prosecutors told a New Zealand courtroom on Friday that Kim Dotcom is a flight risk, alleging that he violated the terms of his bail that allowed him to live free on bail, rather than jail. That came just days after the Megaupload founder told a London tech conference that he was "officially broke" after transferring his remaining assets to his wife and children.

According to TVNZ, New Zealand authorities claimed that the Megaupload founder "has breached bail conditions by having indirect contact with one of his accused; that he is a flight risk because he has the money to skip the country; and that he has been dishonest about his finances by trying to sell a NZ$500,000 Rolls Royce in London."

Ron Mansfield, Dotcom’s new local lawyer, denied that Dotcom was a flight risk: "He's still here."

The New Zealand bail hearing will continue on Monday, when the judge is expected to make a ruling.

"Suffice it to say that we think that the government bail allegations are without merit, and we are disappointed that the allegations were raised only minutes after the [formal] departure of Kim Dotcom's New Zealand counsel—such an approach gives the appearance of procedural gamesmanship," Ira Rothken, Dotcom's California-based attorney, told Ars via text message on Friday.

This month, the case against Dotcom and his co-defendants heated up as United States federal prosecutors asked a court to transfer ownership of his seized assets (which remain in New Zealand government custody) to the United States government on "doctrine of fugitive disentitlement." If the court agrees, and Dotcom and the others are declared fugitives, then they can have no claim on the assets that have already been seized.

American authorities want the US federal court in Virginia to move quickly:

In addition, a delay in this case could jeopardize forfeiture of the assets if foreign governments proceed to release the currently restrained assets despite the United States’ requests to continue restraint. For assets located in New Zealand, at least, the restraint sought based upon the order of this Court cannot, by statute, be extended beyond April 18, 2015. The initial hearing for the New Zealand defendants’ extradition eligibility is now scheduled for June 2, 2015, which is long after those restraints will have been lifted.

Days earlier, Dotcom lost his previous New Zealand-based legal team. In early November 2014, Rothken posted on a new website, Megascholar, that he now seeks attorneys "interested in joining the Megaupload and Kim Dotcom legal defense."

"Prior NZ counsel stepped down, and we have new counsel in place to handle discrete matters such as the bail hearing," Rothken added. "I am continuing on as lead global counsel. We still have about 20 lawyers working on related cases globally. Funds are frozen globally and there are procedures that will be pursued to unfreeze such funds for the legal defense."

From multiple jet ski owner to pauper

US authorities attempted to seize Dotcom’s assets under civil forfeiture back in July 2014—Dotcom’s lawyers attempted to have that case (which is separate from the criminal case that kicked off in January 2012) stayed until the criminal case is resolved. The judge in the civil forfeiture case has yet to rule on the motion to stay the case. Rothken argues that because Dotcom has never been to the US, he can’t possibly be a fugitive.

The extensive list of seized assets includes millions of dollars in various seized bank accounts in Hong Kong and New Zealand, multiple cars, four jet skis, the Coatesville mansion, several cars, two 180-inch TVs, three 82-inch TVs, a $10,000 watch, and a photograph by Olaf Mueller worth over $100,000.

Since being placed under house arrest, Dotcom has attempted to reboot his entrepreneurial career by founding Mega, another cloud storage site, along with Baboom, a music service. (Dotcom cut ties with Baboom in October 2014.) But possibly as a way to avoid further future earnings from being seized, Dotcom distributed all of his assets to his family.

Earlier this week, Dotcom told a London Internet conference via video chat that he was penniless after having all of his assets seized or transferred out of his name.

"As of today, I don't have a single share in Mega," he said Tuesday, referring to the cloud storage company he founded in the wake of the shuttered Megaupload.

"The family trust that controls the shares of Mega is now completely in the control of my wife and my five children who are all the beneficiaries. I had to do that, and I was happy to do that, because Hollywood has tried to attack the new assets that were generated after the raid. As you know the US government has seized everything that was created up until the raid. All moneys, all valuables were seized in all different jurisdictions, and after I started the Internet Party and invested in a political movement, the [Motion Picture Association of America] started suing me civilly to have those assets restrained as well. So I'm officially broke right now."

For his part, Rothken blames Dotcom’s poverty (at least on paper) on the American government.

"Kim Dotcom is broke because the largest copyright case in US history has cost about $10 million to date to defend and will cost tens of millions of dollars more going forward," he continued via text message.

"This will also likely be one of the largest eDiscovery cases in history where current estimates put out of pocket vendor costs alone over $5 million. Given that all of Kim's funds are frozen globally the government is trying to win this case as war of attrition on procedure rather than merit. If Google wasn't permitted to fund the YouTube defense to the tune of tens of millions of dollars in a copyright civil case then YouTube would have lost. The Megaupload case, given the criminal forum and civil forums, will be more expensive to fully defend than YouTube."