Craig Wright is one of the most controversial persons in the cryptocurrency community because he is the most recalcitrant individual that has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin inventor. This is despite the fact that the computer scientist has not been able to sign the digital signature of Satoshi who is still unknown.
He has been enmeshed in a legal battle involving one of his late partner’s, Dave Kleiman’s estate after Kleiman’s brother accused him of cornering digital assets mined by the partners in the days before Bitcoin became popular.
Kleiman died in 2013 and it seems that Wright has somehow gotten hold of the keys necessary to access the coins he mined with the deceased partner. Ira, Dave’s brother filed a case in the US District Court of the Southern District of Florida. The purpose of the suit was to determine the rightful owner of more than a million bitcoins that the due mined prior to the death of Kleiman.
The court was to determine if Wright unlawfully took possession of intellectual property belonging to the Kleiman. The case which commenced in February has the judge pronounce judgment in favor of the Kleiman estate.
The Southern District Court of Florida, Bruce E. said,
“Dr. Wright’s demeanor did not impress me as someone telling the truth” and also that Wright had been engaging in a “willful and bad faith pattern of obstructive behavior, including submitting incomplete or deceptive pleadings, filing a false declaration, knowingly producing a fraudulent trust document, and giving perjurious testimony at the evidentiary hearing.”
Wright had claimed that he had placed the one million bitcoins in a “Tulip Trust” but had lost access to it after Kleiman passed away. The court seems to be taking none of that as Wright has been ordered to hand over 50 percent of his Bitcoin holdings prior to 2014 to the Kleiman estate.
His attorney however has requested for a 30-day extension of the court to enable the parties reach a final settlement, a request which the other party did not object to. the proposed settlement would enable the parties negotiate settlement on the issue.
