Craig Wright, an Australian who has long claimed to be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, has been referred to UK High Court Judge James Mellor of Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) for possible perjury charges following a lawsuit filed by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA). – according to new court documents.
On Tuesday, Mellor ordered that the case be referred to the CPS (the main prosecution agency for England and Wales) after ruling in May that Wright was not a pseudonymous cryptocurrency founder.
“By backing up his false claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Dr. Wright has committed “the most serious abuse” of the legal process in the UK, Norway and the U.S.” – Mellor stated.
The winding legal saga began when the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a collection of crypto organizations, sued Wright in 2021 for his long-standing claim to be the founder of Bitcoin – a mindset seemingly in direct contrast to the decentralized approach of the new cryptocurrency.
Calling Wright’s allegations “brazen and sophisticated,” Mellor’s ruling will legally quash any claim of authorship that the businessman has extolled over the years.
“The Court found that Wright ‘extensively and repeatedly lied to the Court’ in his testimony and that he attempted to create a false narrative by falsifying documents ‘on a grand scale’ and presenting them as evidence,” reads the partial stipulation . “Overall, “all of his lies and falsified documents confirmed his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.”
COPA considers Craig Wright’s ruling a victory for programmers
The repercussions of Mellor’s ruling further require Wright to post a disclaimer on his website, informing the public that he is in fact not the mysterious figure behind the Bitcoin White Paper, whose true identity has never been deciphered.
“This decision is a victory for developers, the entire open source community and the truth,” a COPA spokesperson said shortly after the ruling. “For more than eight years, Wright and his financial supporters lied about his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto and used that lie to bully and intimidate programmers in the Bitcoin community. This ends today with a court ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.” Wright was also ordered to publish a mandatory disclaimer on his X account.
