The case of Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin, has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service for possible prosecution for perjury and forgery.
In March, Wright lost a legal battle with a coalition of cryptocurrency companies that had filed a preemptive suit to prevent him from asserting his claim in court. In a sign of the scale of his defeat, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Mellor, took the unusual step of delivering an oral verdict within seconds of the case being concluded.
“The evidence is overwhelming,” Mellor said at the time, “that Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper.” In the written judgment that followed, Mellor said Wright lied “extensively and repeatedly” in written and oral evidence. “The majority of his lies related to the documents he had falsified that purportedly supported his claim… Dr. Wright’s attempts to prove that he was/is Satoshi Nakamoto represent a very serious abuse of the process of this court.”
Wright’s written testimony was considered a possible forgery even before the trial began, and his own expert witnesses seemed to agree. On cross-examination, Wright dismissed the allegations and claimed his expert witness was not properly qualified. “If I had forged that document, then it would be perfect,” he said at one point.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Mellor said he would refer “relevant” documents from the legal action to the CPS to consider whether criminal charges should be brought against Wright.
“By advancing his false claim to be Satoshi through multiple legal actions, Dr. Wright committed ‘a very serious abuse’ of the process of the courts of the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States,” the ruling states.
“In these circumstances… I have no doubt that I should refer the relevant documents in this case to the Prosecution Service for consideration of whether proceedings should be brought against Dr Wright for his widespread perjury and falsification of documents and/or whether a warrant should be issued for his arrest and/or whether an application should be made for his extradition from wherever he may now be.
“All these matters will be decided by the Prosecutor’s Office.”
In an earlier court case, brought by Wright against a bitcoin celebrity who had accused him of being “a liar” and “a fraud,” the Australian had won a surprise victory after the defendant, Peter McCormack, dropped his defence on the grounds of veracity. But Wright’s victory was pyrrhic: the judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, ruled that he had “presented a deliberately false case” and awarded him token damages of just £1.