An Australian computer scientist who insisted he invented bitcoin has been accused of contempt of court on Friday, November 1 after he filed a 911 million-pound ($1.18 billion) lawsuit against Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey’s payments firm Block in Britain.
Craig Wright had claimed to have been the writer of the foundational text of bitcoin published under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” however, a court had discovered that there was “overwhelming evidence” that Wright did not write the 2008 text.
To prevent him from suing bitcoin developers, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance took legal action against Wright and after a trial at London’s High Court, a judge said in a written ruling in May that Wright had lied “extensively and repeatedly” and falsified documents “on a grand scale”.
The judge had in July, referred Wright to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service to consider and check whether he should be trued for perjury. He also made an order preventing Wright from bringing any litigation on the basis of his claim to be Satoshi.
However, Wright had appealed against the ruling and as at the time of filing this report, a decision on whether he can bring an appeal has not yet been made.
He also denied falsifying documents when he gave evidence in February.
COPA’s lawyer, Jonathan Hough said at a preliminary hearing on Friday that Wright had breached the injunction after her filed a lawsuit against Square Up Europe Limited – a company owned by Bloc– earlier this month.
“I do not believe I am in contempt,” Wright had been quoted adding that if he was found to be in contempt of court, he was ready to ‘fix’ his lawsuit to make clear the case had “nothing to do with the ownership of the creation of the system”.
A trial to determine whether Wright is in contempt will be heard in December but for now, Wright’s lawsuit against Block has been put on hold for the meantime.
