Craig Wright, who claims to be the founder of Bitcoin, was sued by the estate of David Kleiman in February 2018. In the lawsuit, the estate demanded half of the nearly 1.1 million BTC held in Satoshi Nakamoto’s account. At the time, that would have to be just over $5 billion. However, Wright claimed that he was the sole creator of BTC, and thus did not owe Kleiman any BTC.
History Of The Lawsuit
The trial has been a long and tedious one that traces its root to 2018. At the time, Ira Kleiman, who is David Kleiman’s brother, contended that his late brother was entitled to half of the BTC held in the Satoshi Nakamoto wallets, which has never been moved. Craig Wright insists he does not owe any BTC to the Kleiman estate. The trial date was finally set, which was meant to bring an end to the entire saga.
No Evidence Wright Is Satoshi Nakamoto
While Wright has won his lawsuit, there is still no solid proof that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. In April 2020, a judge ordered him to produce evidence that he was Satoshi Nakamoto. However, he did not comply with the order and no evidence was produced in court. Some people had thus wondered why Wright would not simply bring an end to the court case by simply admitting he was not Satoshi.
Bittersweet Victory
The jury agreed with Wright that while Kleiman helped to create BTC, his contribution was not important enough to constitute a partnership. After lengthy arguments, the jury agreed with this. However, it took them several days to come to a consensus, days after closing arguments on November 24, 2021. Eventually, Judge Beth Bloom issued an Allen Charge, which requires a deadlocked jury to come up with a verdict, which encourages those in the minority to shift their position.
However, there is still a thorny issue that Wright has to deal with. They found that Wright was guilty of conversion, which is the unauthorized use of funds that do not belong to a person. In effect, Wright has been accused of theft. He now has to pay $100 million to the Kleiman estate without punitive damages. A to whether the claim estate will be able to collect on this award is a whole other issue.
A Twist To The Tale
Wright was not found guilty of misusing Kleiman’s funds. Instead, he was found guilty of having misused BTC funds held in the joint company W&K Info Defense Research. However, that is where the saga takes a new twist. Ira Kleiman filed a lawsuit against Wright using W&K.
According to Lynn Wright, the ex-wife of Craig Wright, she owns a majority of the shares in W&K. As such, any lawsuit brought to court in the company’s name was unauthorized. Lynn filed a separate lawsuit in which she wanted the ownership of W&K to be determined. She also wanted the lawsuit by the Kleiman estate to be declared unauthorized. A judge ordered a stay on the case until the Kleiman vs Wright lawsuit was determined.
Craig Wright Says It Is A Victory
While he has been ordered to pay $100 million, Wright claimed that the jury’s verdict was a win. In his opinion, he now holds the sole claim to the creator of BTC. Besides that, if his wife wins the lawsuit, it means that he will owe her and not the Kleiman estate $100 million.
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