Judgment Day is coming! Craig Wright's $10 billion Bitcoin lawsuit is set to go to trial

2020-09-25 16:57:17

Since 2018, Craig Wright and his former colleague David's brother Ella have been engaged in a heated argument in court over the $10 billion Bitcoin inheritance left by David.

Today, two years have passed since the case was initiated, and the long pre-trial process finally ended on Monday (21). The case will officially enter the trial stage with a jury.

According to documents released by the Southern District Court of Florida on Monday, Judge Bloom has signed a motion to dismiss Craig Wright's request for summary judgment. According to the order issued on September 4, the case will enter the court trial stage on January 4, 2021.

Craig Wright is a PhD in Computer Science (CS) from Australia. He created Bitcoin SV (BSV), which was forked from Bitcoin, and is also the chief scientist of the BSV development team nChain. Because Craig Wright claimed that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, he was spurned by the community and was nicknamed Craig Wright.

The lawsuit dates back to 2013, when David, who died of illness, mined 1.1 million bitcoins with Craig Wright. However, Craig Wright attempted to embezzle the inheritance after David's death, so David's brother Ella sued Craig Wright in court, demanding not only half of the inheritance but also the return of the intellectual property rights of Bitcoin technology that they shared.

In order to evade legal responsibility, Craig Wright used all kinds of tricks during the preparation stage, such as claiming that the inheritance had been transferred to a Tulip Confidential Trust Fund in 2011, and he alone could not unlock the private key to withdraw the money; in addition, it was discovered that many of the documents he submitted were suspected of being forged, and he was reprimanded by the judge in court.

In fact, Craig Wright was threatened with imprisonment for contempt of court.

Disliked by the court

However, Craig Wright never gave up the struggle and once again filed a motion for summary judgment with the court, arguing that the key facts in the case were not in dispute and there was no need to enter the trial stage.

Unfortunately, his wish was not fulfilled. Judge Bloom, who had criticized Craig Wright as untrustworthy, rejected his motion and stated in the 93-page court document that many facts were still controversial.

This is Satoshi's last struggle, and the verdict also symbolizes that Satoshi will eventually go to court and face a jury.

Palley, a well-known American lawyer, described in detail several important points of the case on Twitter.

Palley believes that the ruling is undoubtedly a great harm to Craig Wright because the court obviously dislikes him, and the several points mentioned in the ruling are detailed and powerful.

According to Palley, the six affirmative defenses raised by Wright in his motion for summary judgment were almost completely defeated, with the court leaving only laches and statute of limitations;

Regarding the statute of limitations, Craig Wright claimed that the plaintiff could not prove that there was a verbal partnership between him and David. He stated that the two had ended their partnership as early as 2011, but the court found in an envelope sent by Craig Wright in 2013 that he stated at the time that the two had been working together on something for a while.

Craig Wright's other claims, such as that his fraud did not damage the value of David's estate and that the court had no jurisdiction over the funds, were all rejected.

In addition, the mistakes made by Craig Wright's camp in the litigation process: Craig Wright's lawyers did not submit any documents related to the defense statement or citing evidence, which may also put them in a worse situation. (Cailu Community)