Craig Wright, an Australian scientist who has long claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin, has been referred to British prosecutors for allegedly committing perjury. On Tuesday, a judge at the High Court in London found 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, the creator of Bitcoin, since 2016. He tried to prove in the London court case that he was the original inventor of Bitcoin and therefore held intellectual property rights, including ownership of the copyright in the Bitcoin white paper and initial versions of the Bitcoin software.
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit group that seeks to remove patents and litigation as barriers to crypto growth, filed a lawsuit against Wright in 2021 to protect the crypto community and Bitcoin’s open-source technology.
In March, British High Court Judge James Mellor ruled that Wright did not develop Bitcoin. He stated, “First, Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. 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.”
Now, Judge Mellor has decided to refer the case regarding Wright’s claim to be the inventor of Bitcoin to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which is responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in England and Wales. He added that by pursuing his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto through legal action in the U.K., as well as Norway and the U.S., Wright committed “a most serious abuse” of the court process.
Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym for the person or group that introduced the concept of Bitcoin in 2008 through a whitepaper. Nakamoto was involved in the creation of Bitcoin and blockchain until 2010 but has not been heard from since. The anonymity of Bitcoin’s creator is believed to be intentional to promote decentralized finance effectively.