By
Tolu Ajiboye
April 23rd, 2024
Craig Wright has failed to bar a court case against him alleging that he swindled a former partner at least 300,000 bitcoins. A South Florida judge ruled that the case will continue.
A South Florida federal court has denied Craig Wright’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit. The crypto entrepreneur and self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor allegedly misappropriated billions of dollars’ worth of crypto estate. Ira Kleiman sued Wright on behalf of the estate owned by his brother, the late Dave Kleiman.
The suit states that Wright schemed to grab Dave’s bitcoins and his rights to specific intellectual property linked with the bitcoin technology. Kleiman is seeking the return of a chunk of the 1.1 million bitcoins mined by the two or its fair current market value. He also seeks compensation for extensive IP infringement.
At one point, the figure in question had reached almost $10 billion although the bear market has eaten most of that valuation. Currently, the contentious coins are worth around $3.9 billion. Back in February, we reported comprehensively about the Self-Proclaimed Bitcoin ‘Creator’s court case.
Wright filed a motion in April 2018 seeking the dismissal of this case. Nonetheless, a court document filed on Thursday shows that a majority of the counts of Wright’s motion have been denied.
The most conspicuous part of the order states:
“The Court finds that Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged a claim for conversion. The Amended Complaint asserts that Defendant converted at least 300,000 bitcoins upon Dave’s death and transferred them to various international trusts, which was an unlawful act that deprived the Plaintiffs of the bitcoins therein. Consequently, Plaintiffs’ claim for conversion (Count I) survives Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.”
Craig’s Multiple Roles
Kleiman was the managing member of the firm and the registered agent according to the articles of incorporation of W&K. On the other hand, Judge Bloom’s ruling stated that:
“Wright’s various roles included authorized representative, lead researcher, technical contact, legal agent and representative and Director/Australian Agent.”
After Kleiman’s death in 2013, Wright purportedly transferred bitcoins illegally to himself. Kleiman’s estate is entitles to at least 300,000 bitcoins and forked assets such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold.
The Objection
In a bid to nullify the case, Wright raised various objections. Some of the notable objections include res judicata, forum non conveniens, lack of standing, and international abstention. Also, he said that the case lacked personal jurisdiction, fails to bring this action as a derivative suit, and fails to state legally sufficient claims.
The discovery process of this lawsuit may provide tangible clues to the biggest mysteries in the bitcoin universe. Other than the huge financial implications of this case, the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto may finally be revealed.
Previous documents have cited Dave Kleiman as perhaps the famed Bitcoin creator. These claims were made as recently as November 2018 by Jeff Garzik, an early developer of the cryptocurrency.