Carpathia: Don’t call us for Megaupload data

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter saying that it was done with the data on Megaupload’s servers and that it understood that the companies hosting the data for the file-sharing site could begin deleting data from the site starting Thursday.

Eager Megaupload users trying to recover their files following its shutdown by federal authorities must have been paying close attention, because one of the companies mentioned in the letter — Carpathia Hosting — issued a statement shortly after news reports about it broke.

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In short, the statement says this: if you're a Megaupload user looking for your information, don’t call Carpathia.

“In reference to the letter filed by the U.S. Department of Justice with the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 27, 2012, Carpathia Hosting does not have, and has never had, access to the content on MegaUpload servers and has no mechanism for returning any content residing on such servers to MegaUpload’s customers,” the statement read.

Furthermore, Carpathia didn’t seem to know why federal officials named Thursday as a deadline at all.

“The reference to the Feb. 2, 2012 date in the Department of Justice letter for the deletion of content is not based on any information provided by Carpathia to the U.S. Government,” the statement continued. “We would recommend that anyone who believes that they have content on MegaUpload servers contact MegaUpload.”

The FBI has shut down Megaupload and charged seven of its executives with conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and criminal copyright infringement.

When asked about the significance of the Feb. 2 date, the U.S. Attorney’s office for Eastern Virginia referred back to its earlier letter, which read that it was “our understanding that the hosting companies may begin deleting the contents of the servers beginning as early as February 2, 2012,” but did not specify why it named that date.

Ira Rothken, an attorney for Megaupload, could not immediately be reached for comment on whom users should contact if they want to recover their data.

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