Craig Wright receives a suspended sentence and £145,000 fine for contempt of court.
Ignoring court orders, Wright files $1.2T lawsuits while insisting he’s Bitcoin’s creator.
UK court dismisses Wright’s BTC creator claims, labeling his evidence as “grand forgeries.”
Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who insisted that he was behind Bitcoin’s pseudonym, was sentenced to one year in prison and suspended for one year on December 19 by a UK court. The court also fined Wright £145,000 (approximately $180,000) for five counts of contempt of court. This comes after Wright ignored earlier court orders to cease legal proceedings against Bitcoin’s developers.
Ongoing Legal Actions
The accusations against Wright are linked to his ongoing legal actions against top Bitcoin contributors. Even after being ordered to stop such legal proceedings, Wright filed several lawsuits in October with a claim of more than $1.2 trillion. He also continued to insist that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the still anonymous author of the Bitcoin white paper, even though nobody seemed to believe him.
Jonathan Hough KC, a Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) lawyer, noted that Wright’s suits were aimed at inflicting the greatest possible discomfort on Bitcoin developers. He labeled Wright as having acted like a terrorist, intending to foster fear within the community. Hough said that Wright was trying to scare them off with legal threats because he wanted to keep his members.
Court Rejects Nakamoto Claim
Wright’s assertions of being Nakamoto have been challenged several times in the court of law. In March, the UK court threw out his claims and accused him of fabricating evidence to support his case. The court referred to his actions as “the biggest forgery” and rejected his efforts to own the rights to Bitcoin. Nakamoto, the presumed person behind the real Satoshi, who allegedly controlled one million Bitcoins, has not been identified.
Wright, however, has not allowed these legal challenges to deter him in any way. Wright was present in the hearing through a video link from an undisclosed Asian country and did not attend physically. He sought £240,000 ($300,000) as reimbursement for costs and damages for loss of earnings.
Craig Wright Faces Perjury Charges for False Claims and Fabricated Evidence
Wright was found to be in contempt of court by Judge James Mellor, who handled the case beyond any reasonable doubt. In a previous ruling, the court had described Wright as “an extremely unreliable witness” who had given many lies in court. The judge threw out Wright’s accusations of bias against the judiciary.
In light of this, Wright said he would take the matter to the Court of Appeal. Despite such consequences, he has not relented in his bid to be acknowledged as the owner of the virtual currency known as Bitcoin.
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