Computer scientist behind false Bitcoin founder claim facing contempt case
Dr Craig Wright was found to have ‘lied extensively’ about his claim to be the founder of Bitcoin following a trial earlier this year.
A computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the founder of Bitcoin should be jailed for contempt of court after launching a legal claim for more than £900 billion in breach of a court order, the High Court has been told.
A judge found in March that Dr Craig Wright had “lied extensively” about whether he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym attributed to the person widely credited with establishing the cryptocurrency.
Dr Wright was sued by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa), a non-profit group including cryptocurrency firms, who told a trial in London earlier this year that he had committed “forgery on an industrial scale” to support the “brazen lie” that he was Satoshi.
The Australian was barred from launching or threatening further legal action related to Bitcoin by a court order in June, but lawyers for Copa told a hearing on Wednesday he issued a claim worth more than £900 billion over intellectual property rights related to Bitcoin in October, which constituted contempt of court.
Jonathan Hough KC, for Copa, said in written submissions that Dr Wright should be jailed for “multiple, clear breaches of the order” which were “impossible to remedy” and for which he “has shown no remorse”.
He said: “Dr Wright’s original campaign of litigation caused serious distress and hardship to those he targeted and had chilling effects on cryptocurrency development.
“Dr Wright is now repeating his offence.”
He continued: “Bitcoin developers have once more had to suffer the distress and inconvenience of knowing or at least suspecting that Dr Wright is attempting to sue them for huge sums of money and intending to use the proceedings to blacken their names.
“The order was made after careful judicial consideration to prevent this happening, and Dr Wright’s conduct has so far denied developers the benefit of its protection.”
Mr Hough told the court that Dr Wright should be jailed for two years – the highest sentence the court can pass for contempt – which would include an 18-month “unconditional” sentence, and a further six months to be added on if Dr Wright “does not promptly discontinue the new claim”.
Dr Wright was neither present nor represented at the hearing, with Mr Justice Mellor ruling that proceedings could continue in his absence.
The original Bitcoin founding document, a white paper named Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, was released in 2008 and was authored under Satoshi’s name.
Dr Wright repeatedly claimed to be Satoshi, but Mr Hough told a trial in February that he created an “elaborate false narrative” to support his claim and “terrorised” those who questioned him.
Mr Hough said that some aspects of his story entered “the realm of farce” and accused Dr Wright of using the artificial intelligence software ChatGPT to forge documents.
Lawyers for the computer scientist said there was “clear evidence” demonstrating his creation of the digital currency, and that he possessed “an unusual combination of multi-disciplinary talents” and extensive experience in the field, culminating in the White Paper.
But Mr Justice Mellor ruled that the evidence against Dr Wright was “overwhelming”, stating in a written judgment that he repeatedly lied and committed “clumsy” forgeries “on a grand scale” to support his claims.
He said: “I tried to identify whether there was any reliable evidence to support Dr Wright’s claim and concluded there was none.”
In July, the same judge ruled that “relevant” papers from the case would be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider whether criminal charges should be brought, stating that Dr Wright’s claims were a “most serious abuse” of the court’s process.
Mr Hough said on Wednesday that Dr Wright had paid legal costs of “around £10 million” after losing the legal action.
Mr Justice Mellor said he expects to give judgment at 2pm on Thursday.
