An administrative error within the court order that saw Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom‘s material and financial assets being seized and frozen may mean that the items will be returned to the New Zealander.

On January 20th, New Zealand police working at the request of US authorities, raided the £20m mansion in Auckland where the Megaupload boss lived with his family. Among the items seized were jewellery, luxury cars and giant TVs.

As a result of the raid, Megaupload was closed and its web domains seized, rendering the service unusable for many of its customers who had done nothing at all to infringe upon copyright or other laws.

The error in this instance lies in the fact that the wrong kind of court order was obtained, and now Judge Judith Potter has declared that the court order should be considered “null and void”.

It has been admitted by government and police in New Zealand that they made five separate “procedural errors” when filing the first court order, but have since filed a second seeking to confiscate the assets already seized in the raid.

The new order also requests to seize additional assets that came to light as a result of evidence uncovered during the initial raid.

This order has been granted temporarily by Judge Potter, although she will soon rule on whether the initial errors would mean that Kim Dotcom will have his assets returned to him.