Craig Wright, an Australian scientist who has long asserted he is the creator of Bitcoin, has been referred to British prosecutors for allegedly committing perjury. A judge at the High Court in London ruled on Tuesday that Wright had extensively lied to support his false claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous author of the 2008 Bitcoin white paper.
Craig Wright has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto since 2016. He attempted to prove in a London court case that he was the original inventor of Bitcoin, seeking intellectual property rights, including ownership of the copyright of the Bitcoin white paper and initial versions of the Bitcoin software.
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit community aiming to remove patents and litigation as barriers to growth in crypto, filed a lawsuit against Wright in 2021 to protect the crypto community and Bitcoin’s open-source technology.
Earlier this year, Judge James Mellor of the British High Court ruled in London that Wright did not develop Bitcoin. In March, Mellor stated, “First, Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin whitepaper. Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. Any further relief will be dealt with in my written judgment.”
Judge Mellor has now decided to refer Wright’s claim of being the inventor of Bitcoin to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in England and Wales. Mellor added that Wright committed “a most serious abuse” of the court process by pursuing his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto through legal action in the U.K., as well as in Norway and the U.S.
Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. The pseudonym refers to the person or group who introduced the concept of Bitcoin in 2008 through a white paper. Nakamoto participated in the development of Bitcoin and blockchain until 2010 but has not been heard from since. The anonymity of Bitcoin’s creator may have been intended to safeguard their identity from governments and to emphasize the decentralized nature of Bitcoin.