The estate of David Kleiman has been suing Craig Wright in Florida over 1.1 million Bitcoins. Allegedly, the duo were the masterminds behind Bitcoin and mined a whopping 1.1 million Bitcoins in the early days. After David Kleiman’s death, Wright then decided to transfer all of the Bitcoins to his own possession and has refused to give the Kleiman estate their half of the coins. Ira Kleiman is hoping to get his share of the Bitcoins transferred to him – roughly worth $5 billion – but Wright is adamant that he doesn’t have access to the Bitcoin stash.
This directly calls into question his legitimacy as Satoshi Nakamoto and a number of other claims Wright has made. As the court case turns sour and Wright looks like he will be indicted for theft, Wright and his legal team have urged the court to dismiss the case. However, Judge Beth Bloom has stated that given the excessive number of forged documents submitted by Wright, the case will not be thrown out under any circumstances.
Forged Documents Galore
At the start of the case, it looked as is Wright had an ironclad defense, but as the case has dragged on the scales have been tipping more and more into the Kleiman camp. Late last week, Jonathan Warren – Bitmessage founder – outed a number of Wright’s alleged conversations with Kleiman as complete forgeries. It’s not the first time the legitimacy of Wright’s documents have been called into question, and if more documents are found to be forged Wright could be in a world of trouble. In Florida, the punishment for forgery is up to five years in prison, five years of probation, and a $5,000 fine. Fortunately, Wright has one of the best legal teams in the world and will likely get away with probation and a tiny fine.
First win for https://t.co/RA1WINYDh7. Craig Wright’s motion for judgment on the pleadings was denied. @KyleWRoche
The Court “simply does not find the Defendant’s testimony to be credible.”
— Vel Freedman (@VelvelFreedman) August 15, 2019
Wright in a World of Trouble
After his legal team called for judgement on proceedings, Judge Beth Bloom rolled out the big guns and said the court “simply does not find the Defendant’s testimony to be credible.” Federal judges aren’t known for their leniency to people who lie in US court and submit forged documents or throw tantrums in the courtroom. If the last court session is anything to go by, it looks like Bloom could have already made up her mind about the whole case – it’s not looking good for Wright.
Unless Wright changes his rhetoric, it looks very much like the court case will only have a handful more sessions before the court rules in Ira Kleiman’s favor. If so, Wright’s other court cases around the globe will likely be thrown out, and his legitimacy as Satoshi Nakamoto will be further called into question. Whether Wright will face jail time or not is yet to be seen, but given his legal team it’s not likely he will end up being cell mates with Ross Ulbricht.
