Bitcoin inventor claimant referred to UK prosecutors for alleged perjury
An Australian individual named Craig Wright, who asserted himself as the creator of bitcoin, has been referred to British prosecutors for suspected perjury. British High Court Judge James Mellor decided to pass the case regarding Wright’s claim of being the inventor of bitcoin to the Crown Prosecution Service, responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in England and Wales.
The Crown Prosecution Service will now assess whether Wright should face charges for what Judge Mellor described as “wholescale perjury and forgery of documents,” and determine if an arrest warrant and potential extradition are necessary. Following a High Court ruling that accused him of extensive and repeated falsehoods in his attempts to prove his identity as bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, Wright has largely refrained from public statements.
In the London court proceedings, Wright sought to establish himself as the original architect of bitcoin, thereby claiming intellectual property rights, including copyright ownership of the bitcoin white paper and early versions of the bitcoin software. Notably, the bitcoin protocol operates on a decentralized, open-source framework, preventing any single entity from controlling it.
Judge Mellor concluded that Wright had orchestrated a deceitful scheme by fabricating documents on a significant scale and presenting them as authentic evidence in court. He further criticized Wright for abusing the legal system by pursuing his Satoshi Nakamoto identity assertion through legal channels in the U.K., Norway, and the U.S., labeling it as a severe misuse of the judicial process.
Despite these developments, Wright’s holding company, Tulip Trading, did not provide an immediate response when approached by CNBC for comments.
