Australian computer scientist Craig Wright’s claims to be Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, could lead British prosecutors to charge him with perjury and forgery of documents.
A new ruling in the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) vs. Wright case revealed that High Court Justice James Mellor has referred Wright’s misconduct to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for consideration on charging him with perjury for providing false testimony during the trial.
Wright Faces Perjury Charges
Judge Mellor found that Wright had lied to bolster his false claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto during the trial. Although Wright has remained insistent for years that he wrote the Bitcoin white paper, the judge ruled that neither of his claims were true in March.
COPA sued Wright to prove that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto and prevent him from suing Bitcoin developers and related entities that denied his claims. Since 2019, Wright has waged legal war against several developers to silence their criticism and gain ownership of the Bitcoin network.
Interestingly, he failed to mention anyone to whom he sent bitcoin (BTC) in the network’s early days. Hence, the judge said the evidence in the case overwhelmingly convinced him that Wright was not the creator of the cryptocurrency.
Following the judge’s ruling on the case, a written judgment that found Wright guilty of grand-scale forgery was filed two months later. Judge Mellor ruled that Wright lied repeatedly and extensively to support his biggest lie of being the Bitcoin creator. As a result of Wright’s forgery, Judge Mellor believes the case merits a referral to the CPS for possible criminal proceedings.
“I have no doubt that I should refer the relevant papers in this case to the CPS for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr. Wright for his wholesale perjury and forgery of documents and/or whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from wherever he now is,” Judge Mellor wrote.
Wright to Cease Legal Proceedings
While the case makes its way to the CPS, Judge Mellor has granted certain orders and injunctions against Wright. For six months, the self-proclaimed Nakamoto must post a court notice on his website, Slack, and X accounts.
In addition, Wright cannot continue any further legal proceedings on the case, and he is prohibited from threatening to engage in legal proceedings as he has done in the past.