Craig Wright to Negotiate for Settlement Over 1.1 Million Bitcoin Ownership Trial

Craig Wright, the “wannabe” Satoshi Nakamoto, is planning to resolve a case that would possibly incur him a cost in billions in terms of Bitcoins (BTC). Wright is an Australian entrepreneur and computer scientist who has claimed himself, a number of times to be the creator of Bitcoin and has been involved in this controversy for quite some time now. Wright, who is famous or rather infamous for his notoriety in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, has apparently built a patent empire. He was embroiled in a lawsuit since February, last year with Kleiman estate, after Ira, the brother of Dave Kleiman filed a case in the US District Court of the Southern District of Florida. The lawsuit was filed over the ownership and rights to a major “stash of Bitcoin” i.e. the hard variant of Bitcoin cash. Ira claimed that Wright had unlawfully got hold of Dave Kleiman’s Bitcoin, and misappropriated his intellectual property through a fraudulent scheme.

The events go back to Dave’s death in 2013, after which Wright is claimed to have seized over a million of Bitcoins that were mined together by them earlier when cryptocurrency was still becoming popular. The litigation filed lasted for months until last month when the judge of the Southern District Court of Florida, Bruce E. Reinhart pronounced his judgement in favour of Kleiman estate and said, “Dr. Wright’s demeanor did not impress me as someone telling the truth” and also that Wright had been engaging in a “willful and bad faith pattern of obstructive behavior, including submitting incomplete or deceptive pleadings, filing a false declaration, knowingly producing a fraudulent trust document, and giving perjurious testimony at the evidentiary hearing.”

Wright had claimed himself to be the inventor of Bitcoin and had entered into a partnership with  Kleiman, although he had later alienated himself from the project on discovering that cryptocurrency was being used for illegal activities. According to Wright’s version of the story, they had put all the funds (approximately 1 million BTC) into secured storage “Tulip Trust”, which could be accessed only through the duo’s cryptographic signature. He had, however, lost all access to the fund post-Kleiman’s death.

The magistrate had also ruled in August that Wright would be required to hand over 50 percent of his Bitcoin holdings and intellectual property held till 2014 to Kleiman’s estate. Wright’s legal representative had requested on his behalf, for a 30-day extension from the court before a final settlement was reached, claiming that both parties should reach an amicable settlement. The request was supported by Kleiman estate too. The extension would buy some time for Kleiman for witness disclosure and so on, although, negotiation is still on the way. The parties have reached a non-binding agreement to resolve the matter as soon as possible with certain terms and conditions.

Scott Cook

Scott Cook got into crypto world since 2010. He has worked as a news writer for three years in some of the foremost publications. He recently joined our team as a crypto news writer. He regularly contributes latest happenings of crypto industry. In addition to that, he is very good at technical analysis.

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