Craig Wright, computer scientist was found to have lied “repeatedly and repeatedly” of being the inventor of Bitcoin, was sentenced to a year in prison by a UK judge after being found guilty of contempt of court. The sentence was suspended for two years, meaning Wright would only face jail if he reoffended during that period.
At Thursday's hearing at the UK Supreme Court, Justice James Edward Mellor rule that Wright—in bringing about a 1.15 trillion USD lawsuit in October against Bitcoin developers and payments company Square—a violation of one previous court order. The order ordered Wright not to make any public statements Satoshi Nakamotowho created Bitcoin and took legal action on that basis, among other things.
Craig Wright could not be reached for comment. At the hearing, he reported has said he will appeal the contempt ruling.
The contempt of court matter was brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit consortium of crypto companies, in February. put Wright on trial in hopes of getting an official statement that he is not Satoshi. The goal was to stop Wright from continuing many separate lawsuits against Bitcoin developers and others, through which he is trying to assert intellectual property rights to Bitcoin — and to avoid any future violations of the law.
On March 14, the last day of the six-week trial, Mellor gave a statement Quick verdicts are rare: “The evidence is overwhelming,” he told the courtroom. “Dr. Wright is not an adoptive person or operates under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.”
“It is clear that Dr. Wright engaged in the deliberate creation of false documents to support false claims and used the Court as a means to defraud island”. judgment. “I am completely satisfied that Dr. Wright lied to the Court repeatedly and repeatedly. All of his lies and fake documents support his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.”
At a hearing in July, in addition to imposing various orders on Wright, Mellor directed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the UK, to review brought criminal charges against Wright for his wholesale perjury. (CPS has not yet charged Wright with perjury.)