Judge Threatens To Slap Craig Wright; Admits That He “Does Not Have Access” to Bitcoin Addresses

As per a report released by Bloomberg yesterday, self proclaimed Bitcoin inventor — Dr. Craig S. Wright — recently stated that the reason he cannot comply with a recent court order (which required him to list out all of his early bitcoin (BTC) addresses), is because he no longer has access to the coins in question. Law360's Carolina Bolado was in the courtroom give Crypto Twitter regular updates.

Craig Wright, the self-professed inventor of bitcoin, is testifying today in a West Palm Beach federal courtroom about why he hasn't been able to produce the public addresses of the bitcoin he's mined over the years.

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

For those of our readers who may not be aware of this ongoing development, a Florida based district court recently issued an order last month against Dr Wright, asking him to reveal all of his public bitcoin addresses. The case was filed by David Kleiman’s estate, who many believe was one of the first people to be involved with the creation of the flagship crypto asset as well as blockchain technology.

Kleiman’s estate first initiated a case against Wright last year when they alleged that the Australian techie had siphoned off hundreds of thousands of BTC (estimated to be worth $5 billion) from Kleiman's coffers after he passed away.

He choked up as he told of how he wanted to create a cryptocurrency that did not fall to crime, but that he was unsuccessful. Others he worked with started Silk Road and Hydra, on which drugs, weapons and child pornography are traded and sold.

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

According to Kleiman’s team, Wright forged a number of contracts that helped him illegally procure David’s hard earned assets.

It is also worth pointing out that Wright has time-and-again stated that he gave a “key piece of information” regarding the aforementioned BTC reserves to Kleiman before his death. As a result of this, Wright claims that he is now no longer able to locate the digital wallets that need to be presented by him in court.

Here was is the rest of Carolina Bolado's courtroom coverage:

Wright then tossed the document, which did not sit well with Judge Reinhart:

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

They combed through the metadata of the email, and Wright kept insisting "it's not an email, it's a pdf."

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

Wright says this document was sent by his staff, who were at the time trying to force his company into liquidation. "You want me to comment on a file from a server run by a person who was trying to force me into liquidation so they could sell my intellectual property."

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

Kleiman's counsel @VelvelFreedman: "A company you didn't buy until 2014 is listed as a beneficiary of a trust you claim to have created in 2012?"

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

This is a recurring theme. Wright says he doesn't recognize several documents, and Kleiman's counsel points out that his side is the one that produced them.

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

Freedman: "Who holds the 15 key slices?"
Wright: "I hold some. I don't know off the top of my head."

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

So the judge took over questioning here. Wright explained that he gave some keys to Dave Kleiman and directed him to give them to bonded couriers. Some of the keys won't be made available until 2020.

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

The judge didn't say anything more about this, but the clear implication was that he would've liked to hear about this before today.

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 28, 2019

The parties will have to reconvene to hear from expert witnesses. Date still TBD. They'll be back in court July 10 before Judge Bloom for a hearing on a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

— Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) June 29, 2019