There may soon be a new twist in the long-running legal case involving famous self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) creator, Craig Wright, and the estate of his alleged former partner, Dave Kleiman. Wright, one of the most well-known figures to claim the mantle of Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, has been ordered to provide documents supporting the case by April 17.
In an April 13 court order, United States district court Judge Beth Bloom overruled Wright’s objection to providing case documents on the basis of attorney-client and spousal privilege.
Wright is once again ordered to provide real evidence for holding his Bitcoin fortune
The new order effectively means that Wright must produce a cache of 11,000 documents for use in the ongoing court case. The court alleges that Wright has access to 1.1 million Bitcoin, once mined in partnership with his now-deceased partner, Kleiman.
This is not the first time that the self-styled Bitcoin creator has been ordered to provide these documents, however. Previously, Magistrate Judge Reinhart ordered Wright to produce a list of his Bitcoin holdings by March 12. The judge went on to slam Craig Wright for producing forged documents as well as giving a perjured testimony during the ongoing Tulip Trust hearing.
However, Wright has subsequently objected to the order, eventually arguing that the requested documents were protected by his attorney-client relationship, spousal privilege, and privilege relating to his involvement with 17 companies. The Defendant argued that Judge Reinhart’s order was “clearly erroneous and contrary to law” and should be “reversed and vacated.” Wright also emphasized that “prior determinations of forgery on unrelated issues is not an issue of credibility” of his attorney.
Judge Bloom slams Wright’s objection
As such, in the latest order, Judge Bloom has supported the Judge Reinhart’s previous ruling, stipulating that the Judge “properly considered Defendant’s history of lying and forging documents” and did not act contrary to the law. Judge Bloom wrote:
“Judge Reinhart, as such, was not clearly erroneous or acting contrary to law when considering the evidence before him and in assigning it due weight. Moreover, the Court is puzzled by Defendant’s apparent argument that Judge Reinhart must blindly accept items produced by Defendant such that Judge Reinhart cannot rely on his past experiences with Defendant in this litigation (including his history of providing forged materials and giving perjured testimony) [...]”
Wright, aka “Faketoshi”, might not have access to 1.1M Bitcoin at all
The new court ruling may help the community better understand who Craig Wright really is. Since the case was filed in February 2018, Wright has made every possible attempt to postpone the payout of 500,000 bitcoins that he allegedly stole from Kleiman.
Known as “Faketoshi” by some in the crypto community, Wright might not have access to 500,000 BTC at all. Some known crypto personalities have publicly questioned Wright’s ability to pay that amount of Bitcoin. For instance, cryptocurrency podcaster, Peter McCormack, placed a $10,000 bet that Wright does not have access to that amount of Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, Wright is purportedly pretty sure that he’ll get access to his Bitcoin fortune. In a January 2020 interview with Cointelegraph, the self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator declared that he is “99.9999 and a few more 9s percent certain” that he will be taking control of his Bitcoin.
The new court order came on the same day that Wright abandoned his $125,000 libel suit against Blockstream CEO, Adam Back, over his assertion that Wright was fraudulently claiming to be the creator of Bitcoin.