Australian who falsely claimed to have invented bitcoin is found in contempt of UK court
An Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the founder of the bitcoin cryptocurrency has been found to have committed contempt of court by breaching an order of London’s High Court
LONDON — An Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the founder of the bitcoin cryptocurrency was found Thursday to be in contempt of an order of London's High Court.
In a judgment on Thursday, Justice James Mellor said Craig Wright had committed “a clear breach" of the order in March that barred him from launching or threatening further legal action related to bitcoin, which has seen a meteoric rise in value since its launch around the time of the global financial crisis in 2008.
Lawyers for the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, or Copa, a group of technology and cryptocurrency firms, told the court on Wednesday that Wright had issued a claim worth more than 900 billion pounds ($1.1 trillion) related to intellectual property rights connected to bitcoin in October. They argued that constituted contempt of court and that he should be jailed.
Mellor said it was “beyond any reasonable doubt” that Wright had indeed been in contempt of the court order. The judge was expected to sentence Wright later Thursday.
Wright, who according to court documents is in either Indonesia or Singapore, attended Thursday's hearing by video link. He did not attend the previous day's session when Copa made its case.
He said he planned to appeal the contempt finding.
In March, the judge ruled that Wright was not, as he claimed, the mysterious creator of bitcoin, nor the author of the initial versions of the bitcoin software.
For eight years, Wright had claimed that he was the man behind “Satoshi Nakamoto,” the pseudonym that masked the
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