Judge Bruce Reinhart has ordered Craig Wright to pay $165,800 in legal fees to the estate of Dave Kleiman following a ruling in their case last year. The Kleiman estate’s lawyers had initially billed for $658,581, but after Wright appealed this amount Judge Reinhart investigated the claim and agreed with Wright that some of the claims were “excessive and redundant”, brining the bill down to $165,800.
Wright’s Tulip Plans Uprooted
Wright famously lost his case last August, and was ordered to hand over half the ₿1.1 million held in the supposed Tulip Trust, as well as pay the Kleiman estate’s legal fees. As anyone following the case will remember, Wright made things worse for himself by continually proclaiming his inability to provide Bitcoin addresses for the coins he mined before 2014, which put him in contempt of court, which dragged the case out for longer and required more legal work on both sides, which Wright would then be billed for.
Wright baulked at the $658,581 bill and asked the judge to examine the claim, which he has now done, noting that the four Kleiman estate lawyers and advisors, Messrs. Brenner, Freedman, Roche, and Lagos, at times billed for more hours than the work required would normally take, billed for expenses incurred by attending unnecessary sessions, and commanding unreasonably high hourly rates given the levels of experience of some members.
Judge Reduces Bill by 75%
The extent of the excessive billing is made clear when looking at the final figures – if Judge Reinhart truly feels that his bill of $165,800 is more reflective of the time and work invested by the Kleiman estate’s lawyers, then they have tried to get away with 75% more than they deserved.
This is a quite staggering amount, and shows that Wright may in fact have done the Kleiman estate a favor by highlighting the frankly illegal way their legal bills are being calculated.
Wright has until March 30 to pay the $165,800 bill or risk another contempt of court charge.
