A judge in The UK High Court has ordered prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges against computer scientist Craig Wright, after ruling that he lied “extensively and repeatedly” and committed falsifications “on a large scale” in his attempt to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.
In a judgment published on Tuesday, Judge James Mellor outlined several injunctions to be imposed on Wright, after finding in May that he had “engaged in the deliberate production of false documents to support false claims (of being Satoshi) and using the courts as a vehicle for fraud.”
Under the judge’s order, Wright will not be able to publicly claim to be Satoshi or take legal action in any jurisdiction on that basis. He will be required to place a notice on the front page of his personal website and on the X feed detailing the findings against him.
The matter, Mellor writes, will also be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the UK, “for consideration of whether proceedings should be brought against Dr Wright”. The CPS will have to decide whether the available evidence is sufficient to bring charges against Wright “for his widespread perjury and falsification of documents” and “whether a warrant should be issued for his arrest”.
Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This latest ruling follows a six-week trial earlier this year to resolve a civil lawsuit brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a nonprofit consortium of cryptocurrency companies, against Wright. The organization asked the court to declare that Wright is not the creator of Bitcoin, in order to prevent him from moving forward with his project. multiple separate claims against Bitcoin developers and other parties based on the claim.
In a brief interrogation, Wright was presented with documents containing hundreds of alleged signs of forgery. Wright wove together a patchwork of justifications in an attempt to explain the anomalies, but failed to convince the judge. On March 14, the final day of the trial, Mellor issued a rare verdict: “The evidence is overwhelming,” he said in the courtroom. “Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or worked under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.”
In a formal written judgment on May 20, Mellor expanded on the reasoning behind his verdict, confirming that Wright had lied about the creation of Bitcoin and had falsified documents to support that lie. “I am fully convinced that Dr. Wright lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly. All of his lies and falsified documents supported his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto,” Mellor wrote.
In his latest ruling, Mellor stressed the importance, in his view, of blocking any remaining avenue through which Wright could attempt to re-litigate his claim to be Satoshi. “Dr. Wright’s sinister and mendacious campaign to establish himself as Satoshi over many years and involving lies and falsifications on a massive scale requires an extraordinary response,” he wrote.
