An Australian computer scientist Falsely claimed he invented Bitcoin was sentenced on Thursday for contempt of court for bringing a 911 billion pound ($1.2 trillion) lawsuit against Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s payments company blocked in Britain,
Craig Wright has long claimed this to be the case Author of the 2008 white paperThe foundational text of Bitcoin, published under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”.
But a judge at the High Court of London in May, hearing a case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) to block Wright from suing Bitcoin developers, found that Wright had no evidence to support his false claim. Had lied repeatedly and made fake documents.
COPA argued that Wright’s recent lawsuit against Block and others violated the injunction, preventing Wright from filing a lawsuit based on claims that he owns Satoshi or that he has intellectual property rights over Bitcoin.
The group’s lawyer, Jonathan Huff, told the court that Wright’s latest lawsuit was “a desperate publicity stunt to keep his cult supporters engaged.”
Judge James Mellor ruled Thursday that Wright was in contempt of court after a hearing on Wednesday, which Wright did not attend.
Wright appeared at his sentencing hearing remotely but declined to reveal which country he was currently in when asked by Mellor.
The judge imposed a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, in what he said was a “gross breach” of a court order.
Mailer also dismissed Wright’s lawsuit against Block and others.
Wright, who had said he would appeal the finding that he was in contempt of court, was denied permission last month to appeal Mellor’s ruling that he did not invent Bitcoin. Was.
