Man convicted for repeatedly lying about inventing Bitcoin
A computer scientist has been found guilty of contempt of court for repeatedly and falsely asserting that he is the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
In March, the High Court ruled that Craig Wright was not Satoshi and ordered him to cease making such claims. However, Wright continued to initiate legal cases claiming intellectual property rights to Bitcoin, including a demand for $1.2 trillion (£911 billion) in compensation.
The judge described this as a “flagrant breach” of the court’s original order and sentenced Wright to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. This means if Wright, who is Australian but resides in the UK, persists in claiming to have invented the cryptocurrency, he could face imprisonment.
Wright, who appeared via videolink, declined to reveal his location, stating only that he was in Asia. Consequently, UK authorities would need to issue an international arrest warrant if they sought to detain him.
The court referred to Wright’s actions as “legal terrorism,” noting the personal toll they had on individuals involved, as part of his ongoing attempt to be recognized as the creator of Bitcoin. Judge Mr. Justice Mellor criticized Wright’s arguments as “legal nonsense” but acknowledged his apparent knowledge of countries with no extradition agreements with the UK.
Since 2016, Wright has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the elusive inventor of Bitcoin. If his claims were true, Satoshi could be one of the richest individuals globally, with an estimated $100bn (£80bn) in Bitcoin due to the cryptocurrency’s soaring value, especially since Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president. However, Wright failed to provide conclusive evidence to support his claim, which was largely dismissed by the cryptocurrency community.
To assert his position, Wright filed expensive legal suits against individuals and companies that disputed his claim. This led to a legal battle with a group of industry firms, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which successfully forced a High Court trial this year to prevent Wright from launching further lawsuits.
The judge ruled in favor of COPA, stating that Wright had “lied extensively” to back his false claim. COPA lawyer Jonathan Hough described Wright’s behavior during the trial as veering into farce but warned that it had “deadly serious” consequences, creating a “chilling effect” on the industry.
Wright is among several individuals who have either claimed or been identified as Satoshi Nakamoto, but all such claims have been debunked or dismissed, leaving the true identity of Bitcoin’s creator still a mystery.
