Bitcoin ‘inventor’ ordered to pay $100m in damages
An Australian computer scientist and self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin has been cleared of majority of claims in an IP dispute, but will have to pay $100 million in damages—reportedly in the form of IP assets—to a venture he founded with his deceased business partner.
A jury at the Southern District of the US District of Florida handed down the decision yesterday, Monday, December 6.
The dispute arose in April 2018, when Ira Kleiman, the brother of deceased IT security expert David Kleiman, sued Craig Wright.
He claimed that his sibling and Wright invented the cryptocurrency together in 2008 under the pseudonymous name Satoshi Nakamoto (Satoshi).
According to the complaint, the pair released a paper entitled “ Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a mailing list of cryptography enthusiasts”.
This paper detailed novel methods of using a peer-to-peer network to generate what it described as “a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust,” and both Wright and Kleiman accumulated a vast wealth of bitcoins from 2009 through 2013, said the filing.
The complaint held that after David Kleiman’s death in 2013, Wright perpetrated a scheme against Kleiman’s estate to seize his bitcoins and his rights to certain IP associated with the Bitcoin technology.
As part of this plan, the complaint alleged that Wright forged a series of contracts that purported to transfer Kleiman’s assets to Wright and/or companies controlled by him.
It also alleged that after Kleiman’s death, Wright unlawfully, willfully, and maliciously misappropriated trade secrets belonging to his estate relating to blockchain-based technologies by using a series of fraudulent contracts, misrepresentations, and fraudulently obtained court judgments to transfer/acquire the property rights in these trade secrets to/for himself.
But on Monday, the jury cleared Wright on nearly all of the alleged complaints, concluding that he was not liable for fraud.
But the jurors did award $100 million of assets to W&K Information Defense Research, a venture set up by Wright and David Kleiman. The exact nature of the damages is as yet unclear. WIPR has asked the lawyers involved for clarification.
Both sides of the dispute have claimed victory.
In a video message: Wright said: “This has been a remarkably good outcome and I feel completely vindicated. There are still more fights. We are going to make everything change: cryptocurrency to digital cash the way it’s meant to be.”
In a statement, lawyers for W&K, Roche Freedman founders Vel Freedman and Kyle Roche,said: “We are immensely gratified that a jury has awarded our client, W&K Information Defense Research, $100,000,000 and found that Craig Wright wrongfully took bitcoin-related assets from W&K.
“Many years ago, Wright told the Kleiman family that he and Dave Kleiman developed revolutionary Bitcoin based intellectual property. Despite those admissions, Wright refused to give the Kleimans their fair share of what Dave helped create and instead took those assets for himself.”
The jury verdict is not expected to resolve the debate over whether Wright is the mythical creator of the peer-to-peer currency, Satoshi.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
Today’s top stories
