Emily Walker
Craig Wright, the individual who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, was sentenced to one year in prison by a judge in the UK on Thursday for contempt of court.
This ruling, made by Justice James Edward Mellor, stemmed from a detailed examination of Wright’s actions, which included “significant and persistent falsehoods” regarding his claim to be the founder of Bitcoin.
The prison sentence is suspended for two years, meaning he will only serve time if he commits further infractions during this probationary period.
Craig Wright Faces Increasing Legal Issues
The sentence is part of a prominent case in which Wright filed a $1.15 trillion lawsuit against developers of Bitcoin and the company Square. The court found he broke a previous ruling that prohibited him from asserting he is Satoshi Nakamoto and engaging in legal actions based on that claim.
In a recent hearing, Wright indicated plans to appeal the contempt ruling, but he could not be reached for a comment. His legal challenges intensified when the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a group of cryptocurrency organizations, commenced proceedings against him.
COPA seeks a legal declaration that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, aiming to curtail his ability to file multiple lawsuits against Bitcoin developers and others related to Bitcoin’s intellectual property rights.
Throughout a six-week trial, Justice Mellor provided a decisive verdict, claiming, “The evidence is overwhelming.” He ruled that Wright was not the person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym and accused him of fabricating evidence to support his claims.
The judge criticized Wright’s behavior as a “vehicle for fraud,” stating that his numerous falsehoods were intended to reinforce his main untruth: his alleged identity as the creator of Bitcoin.
Along with the contempt ruling, Justice Mellor urged the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider filing criminal charges against Wright for what he labeled “wholesale perjury.” However, there are currently no perjury charges brought against him.
Wright’s Allegations of Bitcoin Modification Dismissed
In an October lawsuit against Square and Bitcoin developers, Craig Wright accused them of inaccurately representing Bitcoin (BTC) as the original cryptocurrency.
He alleged that they had modified the original Bitcoin protocol without permission, claiming that these modifications strayed significantly from the system outlined by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin White Paper.
COPA contended that Wright’s lawsuit violated existing legal restrictions on him, citing contempt on five distinct charges.
Justice Mellor ruled that Wright must stop his legal pursuits against Square and the Bitcoin developers, affirming, “There is no doubt whatever that each of these contempts has been proved.”
Although Craig Wright was meant to attend a hearing regarding the contempt charges, he did not show up, claiming that potential losses exceeding £240,000 ($303,000) were the cause for his absence. Reports indicate he may be in Asia, likely in Singapore or Indonesia, but he did not reveal his exact whereabouts when questioned by the court.
As this article is being written, Bitcoin is priced at $96,340, having dropped below $100,000 after the US Federal Reserve’s recent decision to lower interest rates on Wednesday. Currently, BTC is down nearly 5% within the last 24 hours.
Featured image from the Financial Times, with the chart from TradingView.com