Craig Wright, the A computer scientist convicted of lying “extensively and repeatedly” about being the inventor of Bitcoin has been sentenced to a year in prison by a UK judge after being found guilty of contempt of court. The sentence is suspended for two years, meaning Wright will only face prison if he reoffends during that period.
At a hearing on Thursday at the UK High Court, Judge James Edward Mellor ruled that Wright—by bringing a Demand of 1.15 trillion dollars in October against Bitcoin developers and payments company Square, had violated an earlier court order. The order required Wright to refrain from publicly claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, and from taking legal action on that basis, among other things.
Representatives for Craig Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the audience, he is reported having said that he will appeal the contempt ruling.
The contempt of court issue was raised by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a nonprofit consortium of crypto companies, which in February took Wright to trial in hopes of obtaining a formal declaration that he is not Satoshi. The goal was to prevent Wright from moving forward. multiple separate lawsuits against Bitcoin developers and other parties, through which it attempted to enforce intellectual property rights over Bitcoin and prevent any future legal wars.
On March 14, the final day of the six-week trial, Mellor delivered a rare and swift verdict: “The evidence is overwhelming,” he said in the courtroom. “Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.”
“It is clear that Dr. Wright engaged in the deliberate production of false documents to support false claims and used the courts as a vehicle for fraud,” Mellor wrote in his report. judgment. “I am completely satisfied that Dr Wright lied to the Tribunal extensively and repeatedly. All his lies and forged documents supported his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.”
At a hearing in July, in addition to imposing various injunctions on Wright, Mellor ordered the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the United Kingdom, to consider bringing criminal charges against Wright for his “total perjury.” ”. ” (The CPS has not yet charged Wright with perjury.)