Craig Wright Lied About Creating Bitcoin And Faked Evidence, Judge Rules
A judge in the UK High Court has ruled that computer scientist Craig Wright lied “extensively and repeatedly,” and committed forgery “on a grand scale” in aid of a years-long quest to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.
In a written judgment published on May 20, Justice James Mellor ruled that Wright forged reams of documents in service of his charade. “It is clear that Dr Wright engaged in the deliberate production of false documents to support false claims and use the Courts as a vehicle for fraud,” he wrote. “ I am entirely satisfied that Dr Wright lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly. All his lies and forged documents were in support of his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.”
“Dr Wright presents himself as an extremely clever person,” Mellor added. “However, in my judgment, he is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.” The judgment—the culmination of a six-week trial held earlier in the year—marks the end of a civil lawsuit launched by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a nonprofit consortium of crypto companies, against Wright. The organization asked the court to declare that Wright is not the creator of Bitcoin, to prevent him from carrying forward multiple separate lawsuits against Bitcoin developers and other parties founded on the claim.
