- Craig Wright and his Seychelles company, Wright International Investments, have been ordered to pay Kraken and Coinbase £400,000 ($515,000) as security costs for his ‘passing off’ lawsuit against them.
- The trial will proceed only if Wright wins a separate court case in January regarding his claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto.
- Kraken and Coinbase deny Wright’s claim that BSV is the real Bitcoin and have raised concerns about his ability to pay legal fees due to his lack of assets and outstanding debts.
Craig Wright and one of his mysterious Seychelles companies will have to pay Kraken and Coinbase £400,00 ($515,000) if he wants to pursue his ‘passing off’ lawsuit against them. The judge overseeing the case in the UK, Justice Mellor, ruled that Wright and his company, Wright International Investments, will have to stump up the case as a security cost in advance of the trial going to court, which will only happen if Craig Wright wins a separate court case in January. This could be a problem for Wright, who has boasted previously of how he has no assets to his name yet enjoys a millionaire lifestyle, and could affect his attempts to avoid paying the $143 million he owes W&K Info Defense in the US.
Wright Claims BSV is Bitcoin
Wright brought the ‘passing off’ cases against Kraken and Coinbase in May last year, after FullyCrypto broke the story that he was on the verge of doing so, claiming they have been selling bitcoin under the ticker BTC when in fact the real version is his 2018 fork, BSV. He is seeking to have the exchanges officially recognise BSV as Bitcoin and list it as such and wants appropriate damages, which he believes will be in the billions of dollars.
Kraken and Coinbase have both flatly denied the suggestion that BSV is Bitcoin, pointing out factual inaccuracies in Wright’s version of history, his gregarious behaviour in courts around the world as well as pointing out his history of fraud and document manipulation to achieve his goals. The case was set to go ahead next year, but it will now only go ahead once the COPA case, due to take place in 2024, has been ruled on. This is because a major component of this case is the ‘identity issue’ of whether Wright is, as he claims, Satoshi Nakamoto; if Wright wins then this and other cases will go ahead, but if he loses then they are rendered obsolete.
Kraken and Coinbase Bring Laundry List of Concerns
Kraken and Coinbase filed with the court to request security costs from Wright, much as the developers did in the pineapple hack case. Securities costs are often demanded by defendants when they perceive there to be a real risk that the claimant won’t pay their legal fees should they lose. In Wright’s case, this is a genuine concern, as the exchanges point out:
- Wright has claimed to own no assets himself since 2017
- Wright owes more than $143 million in various court cases around the world and refuses to pay, saying he doesn’t have any money
- Wright says he doesn’t pay for his own litigations, which are typically funded by Calvin Ayre
- Wright International Investments, the company that claims to own the Bitcoin IP said to have been infringed, is based in Seychelles and so getting money from it would be difficult and expensive
In his ruling, Justice Mellor noted how Wright had tried to claim that he was good for the money due to Wright International Investments being worth $16.5 billion, with the value coming in the form of Bitcoin IP as well as holdings of BTC, BSV and BCH. This will have been news to the legal team representing W&K in the US, which is going through long and drawn-out court proceedings to try and get Wright to pay the $143 million he owes their client after the ruling in the Kleiman vs Wright case in 2021.
In that case, Wright faces a contempt of court charge over the fact that he failed to fill in a debtors form properly after he claimed not to have any money attached to his name. Clearly, he can’t decide whether he’s poor as a church mouse or rich as Croesus, with his story changing depending on the circumstances.
Justice Mellor agreed with Kraken and Coinbase that Wright would need to stump up the cash to ensure that the exchanges had their legal bills covered, ruling that Wright and Wright International Investments (which is the company Wright says he mined over 800,000 bitcoins to as Satoshi Nakamoto) split the £400,000 if the trial is to continue, assuming Wright wins the COPA case.
Wright has 28 days to pay this amount, but history suggests that this will be as likely as him signing a Satoshi address.
