Craig Wright “Satoshi Nakamoto” & The $10 Billion Lawsuit For 1 Million Bitcoins

Craig Wright, the Chief Scientist of nChain, is being sued for a whopping $10 billion.

Wright, an Australian computer scientist, academic, and businessman, is best-known for proclaiming himself as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2016. Wright later retracted the claim after being unable to definitely prove his connection to Satoshi’s private keys.

Now, Wright is being sued by Ira Kleiman on behalf of the estate of his brother, Dave Kleiman, who has been linked to the earliest days of bitcoin. Dave Kleiman, a forensic computer investigator and author, passed away in 2013 following a battle with MRSA.

Craig Wright may or may not be the real Satoshi Nakamoto – the pseudonymous figure who created bitcoin. However, there’s no doubt that Wright was active in the early days of bitcoin’s development. Kleiman also worked on bitcoin during the early days.

Lawsuit Could Confirm The Identity Of Satoshi Nakamoto

Here’s where things get interesting: if this lawsuit is successful, then some people believe it could “confirm” that Craig Wright is the real Satoshi Nakamoto. In fact, the lawsuit, if it’s to be believed, undeniably states that Craig Wright is the real Satoshi.

According to Motherboard, there are two possible outcomes to this lawsuit: either Wright and Kleiman were involved in the creation of bitcoin, or they were there just moments after bitcoin was created.

How do we know that Wright and Kleiman were closely involved with bitcoin? Well, the pair had access to mining tools during the earliest days of bitcoin, allowing them to create a small fortune in cryptocurrency. The pair are thought to have controlled as much as 1.1 million BTC – although nobody knows the exact figure.

Kleiman Is Seeking $10 Billion

Craig Wright’s business partner, Dave Kleiman, died in 2013. The latest lawsuit is related to Wright’s actions shortly after Kleiman’s death.

After Kleiman died, Wright contacted Kleiman’s elderly father. Wright is accused of fraudulently claiming that Dave Kleiman signed over ownership and control of W&K, a company run by Kleiman, to Wright. Wright allegedly supported this transaction with fraudulent documents signed by a fake signature.

Ira Kleiman, the brother of Dave Kleiman, claims Wright forged these documents and that the business transaction was not valid.

Because of this alleged forgery, Ira’s lawsuit targets the value of the contentious bitcoin and any associated intellectual property. That amount purportedly totals between $5 billion and $10 billion (the bulk of which is expected to be approximately 1.1 million bitcoins).

The lawsuit also claims that Wright once admitted the signature used on the documents was computer-generated.

Complicating matters further is Wright’s history of problems with Australian tax authorities. Wright had previously been scrutinized for back-dating crucial documents related to his business dealings.

Wright “outed” himself as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2016. He invited the BBC, The Economist, and GQ to a meeting. At that meeting, he produced evidence that he was, in fact, the creator of bitcoin, as verified by the Bitcoin Foundation’s founder, Gavin Andresen.

In the days follow the claim, researchers quickly disputed Wright’s evidence. Researchers said that the presented evidence was publicly available and did not demonstrate a unique connection to Satoshi’s private keys. A few days later, Wright withdrew the claim, saying that he lacked “the courage” to prove he was Nakamoto.

The latest lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in the Southern District of Florida on February 14. Ira Kleiman is being represented by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, a well-known law firm that previously worked on high-profile cases like Bush v. Gore after the 2000 presidential election.

In a statement on Twitter, Dr. Craig Wright claimed that the latest lawsuit was about “greed”.

Craig Wright Is Being Sued For $10 Billion Conclusion

Ira Kleiman is seeking 1.1 million bitcoins from Craig Wright on behalf of Ira’s deceased brother, Dave Kleiman, a former business partner of Craig Wright. Wright and Kleiman were two key figures during the early days of bitcoin, and they had access to specialized mining software capable of mining enormous amounts of bitcoin during the early days of bitcoin’s launch.

One of the most interesting parts of the lawsuit for the bitcoin community, however, is that the lawsuit, if it’s to be believed, states that Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto. Depending on the outcome of this lawsuit, we could have confirmation that Craig Wright is Satoshi.

In any case, this will be a very interesting story to follow as it unfolds.