Australian computer scientist Craig Wright is being sued for an amount of bitcoin currently worth over $5 billion USD ($6.3 billion CAD). Wright is notorious within the digital currency community for previously claiming that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the inventor - or group of inventors - behind Bitcoin. Purportedly, Wright also holds the second largest number of blockchain patents under the company EITC holding, according to a Bitcoin Patent Report. The lawsuit against Wright is issued by plaintiff Ira Kleiman on behalf of his late brother who passed away in 2013. The late Dave Kleiman was an IT and data security expert said to have deep roots with Bitcoin’s origin.
Filed in the Southern District of Florida, the complaint alleges that Wright stole bitcoin assets and intellectual property belonging to Kleiman following his death. “This matter concerns the rightful ownership of hundreds of thousands of bitcoins and the valuable intellectual property rights of various blockchain technologies,” the complaint reads. “As of the date of filing, the value of these assets far exceed $5,118,266,427.50 USD (before punitive or treble damages).The case introduces Kleiman and Wright’s relationship as being formed out of a “mutual obsession with cryptography and data security,” with the pair communicating almost exclusively over email. As the plaintiff alleged, after Kleiman’s death, Wright exploited the fact that Kleiman’s family was unaware of his involvement with the technology and his “incredible sum of bitcoins.” According to the complaint, Wright used the opportunity to seize Kleiman’s bitcoin holdings and intellectual property associated with the technology. Allegedly, Wright achieved this through forging contracts used to transfer Kleiman’s assets directly to Wright and companies under his control.
The case in question is not dependant on unveiling Bitcoin’s mysterious creator(s), as it alleges that Kleiman’s Bitcoin holdings were generated through mining during the currency’s early days. “It is unclear whether Craig, Dave, and/or both created Bitcoin. For reasons not yet completely clear, they chose to keep their involvement in Bitcoin hidden from most of their family and friends,” it said. “It is undeniable, however, that Craig and Dave were involved in Bitcoin from its inception and that they both accumulated a vast wealth of bitcoins from 2009 through 2013.”While Wright previously claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin, the digital currency community largely dismisses these claims due to Wright failing to provide substantial evidence. The complaint, however, makes some interesting claims regarding Bitcoin’s origin. It stated that Wright wrote Kleiman an email asking for help a few months ahead of the original Bitcoin white paper, which was published by the currency’s currently unidentified creator(s), “Satoshi Nakamoto.”According to the complaint, a 2008 email sent from Wright to Kleiman read: “I need your help editing a paper I am going to release later this year. I have been working on a new form of electronic money. Bit cash, Bitcoin . . . [y]ou are always there for me Dave. I want you to be part of it all.”Currently, however, many are skeptical of the extent to which either Kleiman or Wright was involved in creating Bitcoin.Image credit: publicdomainpictures.net
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