- Craig Wright has been ordered to post £248,000 as security in his pineapple hack case
- He must also pay £73,000 costs for denying defendants access to his financial standing
- Wright is suing developers over returning billions of dollars in cryptocurrency he says were stolen
Craig Wright has been ordered to post £248,000 ($332,000) as security plus £73,000 ($97,800) in costs in his pineapple hack case after the UK High Court ruled that his BSV holdings did not count as collateral. Wright, who is suing a collection of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV developers in his attempts to get ₿111,000 that he claims is his returned to him, also failed to prove that the entity actually suing the developers, Tulip Trading Ltd, had enough money in it to fund the case if he lost, and that his legal team had intentionally made it hard to the developers to learn the financial state of the company.
Wright Suing Developers After 2020 ‘Hack’
Wright claims that in February 2020 an Oceans 11-style team broke into his house, planted a pineapple WiFi device and stole access to Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash wallets holding billions in bitcoin and BSV, as well as wiping 50GB of cloud data for no readily apparent reason.
Like all normal people, rather than appealing for public assistance in tracking down the gang, Wright sued the developers of the chains involved, saying that they had a duty to give him back the coins. This is despite there being ample evidence that the coins were never Wright’s to begin with.
“Deliberate Reticence” Comes With £73,000 Bill
One group of developers being targeted in the UK told the High Court recently that they had found it hard to understand the financial standing of Tulip Trading Ltd given the secretive nature of the Seychelles-based company. This was important because they wanted to be sure that Tulip Trading Ltd could afford their costs if it lost.
Instead of printing off a balance sheet, Wright’s lawyers attacked the developers, saying that they had no evidence to back up their claims that Tulip Trading Ltd was insolvent (claims they had never made). The judge, in ruling that Tulip Trading Ltd were guilty of “deliberate reticence”, ordered Tulip Trading Ltd to pay the potential legal costs up front, totaling £248,000, plus £73,000 ($97,800) for the deliberate reticence.
Seeing as Wright is not allowed to pay in BSV or BTC, which the judge also ruled, Wright will have to find another way of footing the bill.
Here’s a visual preview of tomorrow’s episode of #drbitcoin…#craigwright #satoshi #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/72XTKDvhGG
— Dr Bitcoin (@DrBitcoinPod) January 27, 2022
