Craig Wright, the man who on several occasions has claimed to be bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is appealing a court ruling that ordered him to hand over around $5 billion in bitcoin to the estate of former business partner David Kleiman.
Southern District Court of Florida magistrate Bruce Reinhart ruled in late August that Wright (pictured) should not only hand over the bitcoin but also half of his intellectual property rights registered before Kleiman’s death in in 2014 as well.
It’s a massive sum by any objective measure, but Wright arguably got off lightly as the magistrate also found Wright had “perjured himself,” “lied” and “falsified documents.” Perjury in Florida is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Wright’s attorney Andres Rivero filed an unopposed motion for extension of time to challenge the ruling Aug. 30. The extension of time was requested because of the impending impact of Hurricane Doran, which is currently threatening the southeast coast of the U.S.
The filing stated that Wright “does not concede that Magistrate Reinhardt had the power to enter the order that he did.”
There is some speculation that Wright is not able to pay the funds requested. “There are many doubts in the community about if everything really was being done in good faith,” Cryptocurrency Market wrote. “In fact, the opinion more popular [is that] Wright does not have sufficient funds to pay what is required of him and is trying to make time while thinking on how to get out of that mess.”
Wright has previously claimed that access to bitcoin mined between 2009 and 2011 in his business partnership with Kleiman died with Kleiman, though at times he has contradicted himself.
The news comes as bitcoin has taken a slight upturn, albeit following a price slump that started in the second week of August. Bitcoin was trading at $10,373.74 as of 11:05 p.m. EDT, up 6% over the last 24 hours.
Photo: Soldierx.com
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
