Keeping up with Craig Wright’s innumerable lawsuits is no easy feat for anyone in the crypto community. Here is a roundup of everything that is known so far about the court actions regarding the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto.
The Hodlonaut Lawsuit
The Craig vs Hodlonaut saga was perhaps the straw that broke the camel’s back when it came to Wright’s reputation among the rest of the crypto community.
Wright and Calvin Ayre, with the help of Coingeek, supposedly offered a $55k (in BSV) bounty for anyone to dox Hodlonaut, so that Wright could take him to court. Hodlonaut’s crime? Daring to suggest that Wright was not the true Satoshi.
This was a step too far for many, and led to BSV being delisted on both Binance and Kraken… along with many others adding their voices to the “Craig is not Satoshi” narrative.
As Bitcoinist reported yesterday, the latest update saw the UK high court judge ruling that the UK does not have jurisdiction in the matter, and dismissed the case. Probably something that Craig should have checked before starting proceedings.
If he wants to continue to pursue Hodlonaut for defamation, he will have to do so in Norway.
https://twitter.com/TokenJay/status/1217891403822329857
Craig Wright vs Roger Ver
A similar case, brought in the UK against Bitcoin Cash champion, Roger Ver, for defamation relating to a YouTube video, was also thrown out of the UK High Court in July 2019.
The judge said there was little evidence of Wright’s global reputation, or that it had been particularly damaged in the UK. In addition, the judge claimed that UK may not have been the most appropriate place to launch the case. Either way, Craig had to cough up £60,000 for Roger’s legal fees.
Craig Wright vs Peter McCormack
Another of Wright’s ‘vanity’ defamation cases, in all likelihood brought about because he thinks that is what the real Satoshi Nakamoto would do… if he was Craig Wright.
‘What Bitcoin Did’ podcaster McCormack openly challenged Wright to sue him, during the Hodlonaut debacle. So of course, Wright did.
We haven’t had much of an update on this case of late, although it is the one that many are looking forward to most, promising to once and for all confirm/debunk Wright’s claims of Satoshi-hood.
Back in October 2019 we heard Wright’s right-hand-man, Calvin Ayre, excitedly bragging about coffee stains and rusty staples on a handwritten copy of the Bitcoin white paper, which was supposedly going to win them the court case.
And in November, Tether added its support for McCormack in the case, although the exact nature of this support was not specified.
The Estate of Dave Kleiman Lawsuit
The one court action Wright didn’t initiate and it is perhaps the craziest of the lot.
Ira Kleiman, brother of Wright’s now-deceased former business partner, Dave Kleiman, reasoned that, if Wright is Satoshi then he will have mined around 1.1 million BTC in partnership with Dave.
Half of that should therefore belong to Dave, and in his absence due to death, brother Ira.
Two judges in the case have labelled Wright a liar. He has produced demonstrably forged documents, and claimed that he cannot give details of the bitcoin he mined. He was ordered to pay Kleiman’s legal fees and cough up half of his bitcoin, although the surrender of bitcoin was recently postponed until after a ‘mysterious bonded courier’ turned up or not.
Wright now claims that the courier has arrived, although has not provided private keys, instead giving a list of over 16,000 bitcoin addresses which he says contain his BTC.
His latest trick was to provide 20,000 unlabelled documents, two days before the end of the discovery period in the case, whilst simultaneously requesting that the discovery period should not be extended.
Expect this one to run and run.
https://twitter.com/MyLegacyKit/status/1217866631671664642
Not Enough For You?
Wright also has cases against Ethereum inventor, Vitalik Buterin, who called him a fraud, and Blockstream co-founder, Adam Back, for similarly questioning his claim to be Satoshi.
The progress in both of these cases is sadly currently unknown.
How do you think these lawsuits will end? Add your thoughts below!
Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @TokenJay @MyLegacyKit