Craig Wright, the Computer scientist judged to have lied “profusely and repeatedly”. A British judge who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin has been sentenced to a year in prison for contempt of court. The sentence will be suspended for two years, meaning Wright will only face prison time if he re-offends during that period.
At a hearing on Thursday in the UK Supreme Court, Justice James Edward Mellor said governed this Wright – by a $1.15 trillion lawsuit in October against Bitcoin developer and payment company Square – had violated one previous court order. The order stipulated that Wright should refrain from publicly claiming this Satoshi Nakamotothe creator of Bitcoin, and takes legal action on this basis, among other things.
Representatives for Craig Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At the hearing it is him reported said he would appeal the contempt finding.
The contempt of court issue was raised in February by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit consortium of crypto firms brought Wright to court hoping to get a formal declaration that he is not Satoshi. The aim was to prevent Wright from continuing several separate lawsuits against Bitcoin developers and other parties with whom he sought to enforce Bitcoin intellectual property rights – and ward off future litigation.
On March 14, the final day of the six-week trial, Mellor held one rare hasty judgment: “The evidence is overwhelming,” he said in court. “Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operates under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.”
“It is clear that Dr. Wright intentionally created false documents to support false claims and use the courts as a vehicle for fraud,” Mellor wrote in his article Verdict. “I am completely satisfied that Dr. Wright lied extensively and repeatedly to the court. All of his lies and forged documents supported his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.”
At a hearing in July, Mellor not only dismissed the various restraining orders against Wright, but also ordered the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the agency responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the United Kingdom, to file criminal charges against Wright for his “gross perjury to consider. (The CPS has not yet charged Wright with perjury.)
