Craig Wright, A computer scientist who was found to have “lied extensively and repeatedly” about being the inventor of Bitcoin has been sentenced to a year in prison by a British judge after being found in contempt of court. The sentence is suspended for two years, meaning Wright will only face prison if he reoffends during that period.
At Thursday’s hearing before the British High Court, Judge James Edward Mellor ruled this Wright – bringing $1.15 Trillion Lawsuit in October against Bitcoin developers and payment company Square – violating an earlier court ruling. The order required Wright to refrain from, among other things, publicly impersonating Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, and taking legal action on that basis.
Craig Wright could not be reached for comment. At the trial, yes reported say that he will appeal against the contempt judgment.
Contempt of court’s issue was raised by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a consortium of nonprofit crypto companies that took Wright to court in February in hopes of obtaining a formal declaration that he was not Satoshi. The goal was to prevent Wright from continuing his business many separate lawsuits against Bitcoin’s creators and other parties through which it attempted to assert intellectual property rights in Bitcoin – and prevent any future infringements.
On March 14, the last day of the six-week trial, Mellor delivered a occasional, lightning-fast verdict: “The evidence is overwhelming,” he told the courtroom. “Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.”
“It is clear that Dr. Wright intentionally prepared false documents to support his false claims and used the court as an instrument of fraud,” Mellor wrote in his precipitate. “I am absolutely convinced 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.
During the July hearing, in addition to imposing various orders on Wright, Mellor directed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the UK, to consider bringing criminal charges against Wright for his “wholesale perjury”. ” (CPS has not yet charged Wright with perjury.)