Prosecutor Satoshi Craig Wright evades two-year prison sentence


There it goes again. Craig Wright, the computer scientist who a British court ruled in March was not Satoshi Nakamoto at all, was found in contempt of court on Thursday for continuing to assert his identity as the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin.

Wright, who is believed to be in Asia and did not attend the hearing in London, faced up to two years in prison, according to the UK contempt penalty. Guidelines.

Supreme Court Justice James Mellor suspended the ruling for two years, on the condition that Wright stop prosecuting people in Nakamoto's name.

The contempt suit, filed by the Open Crypto Patents Alliance, stems from Wright's latest shenanigans - lawsuit Brought in October.

In it, Wright claimed that Bitcoin had “fundamentally deviated” from Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision and that Bitcoin developers had misled investors.

Wright sought $1.14 trillion In damages, the suit was summarily dismissed in November, leading COPA to demand that Wright be held in contempt of court.

In court Documents Justice Mellor's ruling, delivered by the Supreme Court on Thursday, said that by bringing the copyright claim against COPA on behalf of Bitcoin, Wright was once again claiming to be Nakamoto, a position deemed unacceptable.

In March, it was Mellor to rule Wright was categorically not Nakamoto. In July, Wright was ordered to speak publicly announces It was not Nakamoto or the author of the Bitcoin white paper.

“It is rare for someone, having been ordered not to bring legal action, to do exactly that in the same court that issued the ban,” COPA Legal Counsel Tristan Sherliker With Bird & Bird said Decryption In an interview. “By filing the new claim, Craig Wright has violated the court order, which specifically bars him from pursuing further court proceedings based on his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto or his ownership of the relevant intellectual property.”

In an email to the court, Wright said attending the hearing would have been a financial burden on him, and that he was in Asia for “business purposes.”

COPA offered to fly him to the contempt hearing in economy class.

since 2021Wright became embroiled in a legal battle with COPA, an organization backed by Jack Dorsey, and a group of Bitcoin Core developers.

According to Scherliker, Judge Mellor said the suspended sentence was intended to dissuade Wright from committing further breaches of the order and ensure compliance with the original sentence.

“We have indications that Craig Wright chose exile,” Scherliker said. “The judge recognized that this meant that if he imposed a custodial sentence, it would likely not be served directly, and imposed a suspended sentence, the effect of which was that if there was any further inappropriate conduct, a one-year prison sentence would be imposed.” A prison sentence will be imposed on Dr. Wright.

Wright's lawyers did not respond Decryption Request for comment.

Sherliker believes today's ruling is the final nail in the Craig Wright saga that claims he created Bitcoin.

“The end should have been at the beginning of the year in March when his claim was completely dismissed,” the lawyer said. “The whole world could then see that it was not Satoshi.”

Modified by Josh Quitner and Sebastian Sinclair

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