Craig Wright Receives Conditionally Suspended Sentence for Court Contempt
Wright's suit for intellectual property rights related to bitcoin violated a court order imposed after his claim to be bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto was ruled to be false.
What to know:
- Craig Wright was found in contempt of court by a U.K. judge.
- Wright was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years.
- The Crypto Open Patent Alliance took Wright to court after he attempted to sue for intellectual property rights related to the Bitcoin system.
Craig Wright, who falsely claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, was found to be in contempt of court and handed a 12-month jail sentence after starting a legal claim for 900 billion pounds ($1.1 trillion) over intellectual property rights related to the Bitcoin system.
The case was brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, which argued that Wright's suit in October violated the London court's July ruling barring him from pursuing proceedings related to his claim to be Nakamoto.
“Each of the grounds of contempt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Judge James Mellor stated.
Wright, who was in Asia, attended the court virtually to hear the sentence, which is suspended for two years. He declined to disclose his location in Asia and insisted he would appeal the verdict.
In a prior ruling, Mellor determined that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto and issued a court order preventing him from pursuing further claims related to the matter.
UPDATE (Dec. 19, 16:15 UTC): Updates with judge's ruling and sentence details.
CORRECTION (Dec. 19, 16:41 UTC): Corrects figure in the first paragraph to 900 billion pounds. An earlier version had said 900 million.
UPDATE (Dec. 19, 17:03 UTC): Adds judge's comments and details regarding Wright's appeal intentions.
