Craig Wright, the Australian who has long claimed to be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) British High Court Judge James Mellor for a possible perjury charge following a lawsuit by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), new court documents reveal.
So Called Satoshi Referred To Crown Prosecution Services For Alleged Perjury
On Tuesday, Mellor ordered the referral to CPS (the chief prosecutorial agency of England and Wales) after ruling that Wright was not the pseudonymous crypto founder in May.
I fully intend to appeal the decision of the court on the matter of the identity issue. I would like to acknowledge and thank all my supporters for their unwavering encouragement and support. In the meantime, I shall continue to work closely with the Teranode team to achieve…
— Dr Craig S Wright (@Dr_CSWright) May 20, 2024
“In advancing his false claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Dr. Wright committed ‘a most serious abuse’ of the process of the courts of the U.K., Norway, and the U.S.A.,” Mellor said. “If what happened in this case does not warrant referral, it is difficult to envisage a case that would.”
The winding legal saga began when the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a collection of crypto organizations, sued Wright in 2021 for his longstanding claim that he was the founder of Bitcoin – a line of thinking seemingly in direct contrast with the novel cryptocurrency’s decentralized classification.
Calling Wright’s allegations “brazen and elaborate,” Mellor’s judgment will legally stifle any claims of authorship the businessman has touted over the years.
“The Court found that Dr Wright ‘lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly’ in his evidence and that he attempted to create a false narrative by forging documents ‘on a grand scale” and presenting them in evidence,’” the disclaimer reads in part. “Overall, “all his lies and forged documents were in support of his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.’
COPA Calls Craig Wright Ruling A Win For Developers
The aftermath of Mellor’s ruling further requires Wright to include a disclaimer on his website notifying the public that he is in fact not the mysterious figure behind the Bitcoin White Paper, whose true identity has never been deciphered.
“This decision is a win for developers, for the entire open source community, and for the truth,” a COPA spokesperson said shortly following the ruling. “For over eight years, Dr. Wright and his financial backers have lied about his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto and used that lie to bully and intimidate developers in the bitcoin community. That ends today with the court’s ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Wright has also been ordered to post the mandated disclaimer to his X account, though at time of publication, he had seemingly yet to do so.
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