Craig Wright, the computer scientist who controversially claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic mind behind Bitcoin, has recently found himself at the heart of a legal storm. This past Thursday, a UK judge sentenced him to a year in prison for contempt of court. However, the sentence is suspended for two years, so Wright will only face jail time if he finds himself in legal trouble again during this period.
Justice James Edward Mellor made the ruling following a comprehensive examination of Wright’s actions. The court determined that Wright had consistently misrepresented the truth about his identity as the founder of Bitcoin, involving “significant and persistent falsehoods.”
This decision is linked to a dramatic case in which Wright brought a $1.15 trillion lawsuit against Bitcoin developers and the payments company, Square. The court concluded that he had breached a previous order preventing him from publicly claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto and from pursuing legal endeavors based on this claim.
Wright has expressed intentions to appeal the contempt ruling, although he has not made any public statements immediately following the judgment. His legal challenges intensified when the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a coalition of cryptocurrency businesses, launched actions against him. COPA is seeking an official declaration denying Wright’s claim to the Satoshi Nakamoto identity, aiming to impede his ability to initiate further lawsuits regarding Bitcoin’s intellectual property rights.
During a six-week trial, Justice Mellor delivered an unusual rapid verdict, citing “overwhelming” evidence against Wright. He stated categorically that Wright is not the person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto persona and accused him of fabricating documents to substantiate his claims. The judge went so far as to describe Wright’s actions as a “vehicle for fraud,” underlining that his extensive lies fed the core deception of his claim to be Bitcoin’s creator.
In addition, there are talks that the Crown Prosecution Service may potentially bring criminal charges against Wright for “wholesale perjury.” As of now, such charges have not been filed.
In a separate legal battle in October, Wright took issue with Square and Bitcoin developers, accusing them of misrepresenting Bitcoin (BTC) as the original cryptocurrency. Wright argued that they changed the original Bitcoin protocol without any proper authorization, claiming these modifications vastly departed from what Satoshi Nakamoto envisaged in the Bitcoin White Paper.
Conversely, COPA maintained that Wright’s lawsuit was in violation of legal injunctions against him, pointing to contempt on five specific fronts. Justice Mellor, backing this view, instructed Wright to halt his legal actions against Square and the Bitcoin developers, definitively stating that each count of contempt was proven.
Wright failed to attend a crucial hearing on the contempt accusations, attributing his absence to potential financial losses in excess of £240,000 (roughly $303,000). It is rumored that he is somewhere in Asia, possibly Singapore or Indonesia, though he has not provided a precise location when queried by the court.
Meanwhile, a daily chart on TradingView.com indicates a downward trend in Bitcoin’s price. At present, Bitcoin is valued at $96,340, having dipped below the crucial $100,000 threshold following an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. The cryptocurrency has seen nearly a 5% drop in the last day.
Featured image courtesy of the Financial Times, chart from TradingView.com.
