Self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright remains unfazed after Judge Bruce Reinhart ruled against him in the $10 billion lawsuit brought by the estate of Dave Kleiman.
In the damning Aug. 27 order, Reinhart launched a blistering takedown of Wright, who still insists that he is bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
Judge: Craig Wright lied and falsified documents
As CCN reported, the judge granted the plaintiff’s request for 50% of the 1.1 million bitcoin that Wright and Kleiman allegedly mined between 2009 and 2011.
In so doing, the judge concluded that Wright lied, committed perjury, and falsified documents to hide the stash.
“Dr. Wright’s demeanor did not impress me as someone who was telling the truth,” Reinhart wrote. “There is a strong and unrebutted circumstantial inference that Dr. Wright willfully created fraudulent documents.”
Florida Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart presided over the plaintiff’s motion to compel Wright to produce his bitcoin holdings.
However, keep in mind that Beth Bloom is the federal district judge who’s presiding over the $10 billion Kleiman lawsuit.
Judge Reinhart’s ruling was limited to whether Wright should be held in contempt for refusing the court’s repeated orders to produce his bitcoin holdings.
Reinhart said Wright deliberately withheld that information. Despite his finding that Wright had committed perjury and falsified documents, the judge did not recommend civil or criminal sanctions.
That’s noteworthy because perjury is a third-degree felony in Florida punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Judge: It’s not my job to identify Satoshi Nakamoto
In his scathing ruling, Judge Reinhart noted that his court is not required to decide, and will not decide, whether Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto.
Meanwhile, it bears noting that the plaintiff (Dave Kleiman’s brother Ira) insists that Wright and Dave had invented bitcoin together.
Ira made these assertions in his recent Motion to Compel and in his original February 2018 lawsuit.
Wright to haters: I’m still a $6 billion bitcoin whale
While some in the crypto sphere claim that Wright’s latest defeat means that the lawsuit is over and that he’s not Satoshi, the Australian crypto entrepreneur begs to differ.
Wright, through his spokesman, said the judge’s ruling ordering him to turn over 410,000 bitcoin to the Kleiman estate proves he’s Satoshi. After all, Wright argues, who but Nakamoto would have such a massive trove?
“Otherwise, [Craig] couldn’t have them in the first place,” Wright’s rep, Ed Pownall, told Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Wright says his haters shouldn’t be so gleeful over his misfortunes. After all, he claims, he’s still a bitcoin whale with billions of dollars worth of bitcoin.
“You think I’m gonna complain because I only get to keep $6 billion?” Wright said. “Everyone wants to hate on me…I could have tanked the market anytime in the last 10 years and ran away laughing. I didn’t.”
