Craig Wright Faces Perjury Investigation Over Claims He Created Bitcoin (wired.com) 17
A judge in the UK High Court has directed prosecutors to consider bringing criminal charges against computer scientist Craig Wright, after ruling that he lied "extensively and repeatedly" and committed forgery "on a grand scale" in service of his quest to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of bitcoin. From a report: In a judgment published Tuesday, Justice James Mellor outlined various injunctions to be imposed upon Wright, after finding in May that he had "engaged in the deliberate production of false documents to support false claims [to be Satoshi] and use the Courts as a vehicle for fraud."
By order of the judge, Wright will be prevented from claiming publicly that he is Satoshi and from bringing or threatening legal action in any jurisdiction on that basis. He will be required to pin a notice to the front page of his personal website and X feed detailing the findings against him. The matter, Mellor writes, will also be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the UK, "for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr Wright." It will be up to the CPS to decide whether the available evidence is sufficient to bring charges against Wright "for his wholescale perjury and forgery of documents" and "whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued."
By order of the judge, Wright will be prevented from claiming publicly that he is Satoshi and from bringing or threatening legal action in any jurisdiction on that basis. He will be required to pin a notice to the front page of his personal website and X feed detailing the findings against him. The matter, Mellor writes, will also be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the UK, "for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr Wright." It will be up to the CPS to decide whether the available evidence is sufficient to bring charges against Wright "for his wholescale perjury and forgery of documents" and "whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued."
use the Courts as a vehicle for fraud (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't speak toward the statements of forgery and making false claims (haven't paid much attention to the news on this topic), but I fully support the courts slapping down someone with their full power who misuses the courts over false claims. I wish the courts in the US would go after people, and companies, who make false claims/accusations and lead to making false claims/accusations in the court not worth making.
ob: "I'm Satoshi Nakamoto"! (Score:1)
Re:use the Courts as a vehicle for fraud (Score:5, Interesting)
One example of forgery I remember from the trial are the emails from Dennis Mayaka from Kenya that Wright submitted. However the address was not Mr Mayaka's professional email account but one created in gmail. COPA spotted that the emails were timestamped with a U.K. time zone and not the time zone Kenya would use. One screenshot from Mr Mayaka's "computer" suspiciously had the exact same browser tabs that was on Wright's computer in a different submission. The court concluded Wright fabricated the emails.
Another example involved Wright's former attorneys. Wright missed responding to a request by COPA's attorneys that had a deadline. Wright argued that he did and submitted an email where his former attorneys responded. COPA never received that email. So the court asked his former attorneys. They had no record of responding to the email. The court concluded Wright forged that email.
Re: use the Courts as a vehicle for fraud (Score:2)
One of my favorite things about this guy is that he genuinely didn't know what unsigned integers were when asked by the press. How the hell do you write something as sophisticated as Bitcoin and not know what unsigned integers are, especially considering that the original writer of Bitcoin had to write a library for handling uint256_t type variables, since support wasn't built in? That right there proves that he's not Nakamoto.
Re: (Score:2)
Some people had doubts but he opened his mouth figuratively and removed those doubts. Now many people have no doubts that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto. Some of his lies in this case remind me of the 1960s comedy spoof, Get Smart [wikipedia.org] where the main character Agent 86 Maxwell Smart would tell an obvious lie and when confronted with doubt, would retort with, "Would you believe [scenario B]?" and the scenarios would get more ridiculous. [youtube.com]
Maxwell Smart: "This warehouse is being surrounded by 100 cops with Doberman P
We are all Satoshi (Score:3, Insightful)
We are all Satoshi (except Craig Wright)
Re: (Score:2)
I am Spartacus!
"Fingers: they can touch anything but themselves." (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"Fingers: they can touch anything but themselve (Score:5, Informative)
If only Wright could have trivially proven he is satoshi by signing something with one of satoshi's private keys. No ledger needed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
If Craig was for real, he would have made off with Satoshi's stash a long time ago.
Re: (Score:2)
What about his shitcoin? (Score:1)
If he wants to plead guilty, let him. (Score:2)