- U.S District judge dismisses Kleinman estate’s motion to sanction self-proclaimed Bitcoin founder, Craig Wright, from presenting his case before a jury in the coming two weeks.
- Judge Beth Bloom, of the United States District Court Southern District of Florida, further allowed Craig to present a witness to support his autism case.
The case between Craig Wright, so-called Satoshi Nakamoto, and Dave Kleinman’s estate, led by Ira (Dave’s brother) will move to a jury trial on July 6 after a ruling against Kleinman.
BREAKING
Surprisingly, NO DEFAULT SANCTIONS for Craig Wright in the Kleiman v Wright case. Trial by jury it is.
“perjury and fabricated evidence do not constitute fraud upon the court, because they ‘are evils that can and should be exposed at trial.’” https://t.co/fwGA52m9gp pic.twitter.com/t58LNFUFe1
— Arthur van Pelt (@MyLegacyKit) June 24, 2020
According to the court filings on June 24, Kleinman estate lawyers filed an ominous sanction 2020 motion ECF No. [507] in January to prevent Wright from testifying before court due to alleged misconduct before the court. Kleinman claims Craig committed perjury, produced forgeries, and engaged in judicial abuse.
Despite concluding that Craig Wight’s “testimony has been glaringly inconsistent at numerous junctures”, Bloom ruled that the plaintiffs have yet to carry their burden to entering a default judgment as a sanction leaving the role to the jury. The statement from the court reads,
“These determinations, and factual inferences and legal conclusions to be derived from them, are best suited for a jury to make as fact finder at trial, not for the Court to make.”
The court ruled in favor of Craig following his claim of battling autism arguing that the impairment could not explain every misstep in his evidence hence need to prove that the “inconsistencies were not the product of a deliberate scheme to defraud the court.”
Craig filed a motion to present “a licensed clinical psychologist” as an expert witness who diagnosed him with Autism Spectrum Disorder with high intellectual skills.
One of the biggest supporters of the ‘Craig is Satoshi' movement, billionaire Calvin Ayre, who showed his support on the court’s move to dismiss the Kleinman sanction motion. He further believes this may be the catalyst to see “Craig will win all his cases now”.
Craig vs Kleinman’s court journey
Kleinman’s estate claims that Craig owes half of the said 1.1 million BTC (~$10 billion) that Craig and the deceased Kleinman mined together. However, Craig denies any collaboration between the two saying they were only friends. In a case that has dragged for years, Craig stated he would reveal he was the sole miner and Satoshi as well in January this year. It did not happen.
A month later, Craig’s attorney claimed that he did not own the private keys to the Bitcoin address holding the coins. With the case dragging out to jury trial on July 6, Craig’s days in court may be prolonged with Mt. Gox victims now able to sue him.
