A Florida federal judge has denied self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit concerning the alleged theft of a huge amount in Bitcoins from a former business partner, Dave Kleiman.
According to a court filing from August 15, Florida judge denied a request made by Craig Wright to scamper a lawsuit filed against him because of his past testimony and his credibility before the court.
Just remind you what’s this all about. Back in February 2018, the crypto entrepreneur and self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright was sued for allegedly misappropriating billions of dollars’ worth of crypto estate. Ira Kleiman then 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 a specific intellectual property linked with the Bitcoin technology. Kleiman is seeking the return of 1.1 million Bitcoins mined by the two or its fair current market value. He also seeks compensation for extensive IP infringement.
Wright has also filed court documents in an effort to show that he held a trust deed with the estate. Lawyer Stephen Palley claimed that these documents were faked in virtue of the document’s metadata. He said the original document uses a Microsoft font that was copyrighted in 2015, while the document is from 2012.
In June, Craig Wright admitted that he could not comply with a court order to list his early BTC addresses. According to him, he cannot easily retrieve the data because he shared a critical component for accessing the funds and wallets with Kleiman prior to his death.
Wright tried to present some pieces of evidence of the existence of any additional members of one of the plaintiffs, a firm named “W&K Info Defense Research, LLC” (“W&K). He claimed that their existence could prove that the court did not have sufficient evidence. However, he didn’t succeed in this. So, according to the court, “the Defendant has failed to present any credible evidence showing that any of the parties he suggests are members of W&K.”
The Court also noted that the Wright made several conflicting statements regarding even his own ownership of W&K:
“At the Hearing, Defendant argued that the Court cannot both rely upon and find that the statements and evidence provided by himare untrue. SeeECF No. [256], at 100:6-9 (“Judge, if everything’s a lie, then thestuff they rely on when Wright files a contract, or when Wrightmakes a statement, can’t be credited either.”).”
Judge called Wright’s argument “a novel”. She said Wright seems to be arguing that even though his numerous conflicting statements are the very reason confusion has been created as to the ownership of W&K, the Court should nonetheless use these statements as a basis to challenge the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction.
She added:
“In essence, the Defendant uses the evidence proffered as both his sword and his shield. Unfortunately, the record is replete with instances in which the Defendant has proffered conflicting sworn testimony before this Court. In weighing the evidence, the Court simply does not find the Defendant’s testimony to be credible. As for the remaining “extrinsic evidence,” none of the evidence demonstrates additional membership in W&K other than Dave Kleiman.”
In short, Wright’s motion to dismiss is denied. This case will remain in Florida federal court and Twitter, of course, went nuts.
British entrepreneur and investor Alistair Milne said:
Craig Wright caught submitting forged evidence (again) *and* defending it as legitimate in his testimony…
(Perjury:
noun
"the offence of wilfully telling an untruth or making a misrepresentation under oath.") pic.twitter.com/UJvQEMFYXi
— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) August 13, 2019
It has been a bad couple of weeks for Craig Wright:
– UK Libel case against @rogerkver tossed out, claim of damages deemed 'entirely speculative'
– @PeterMcCormack's lawyers tell CSW's lawyers that 'the allegation of lying is synonymous with your client'— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) August 15, 2019
Some even compared it to Putin’s statements:
Vladimir Putin, April 16, 2015: “I can tell you outright and unequivocally that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine.”#CraigWright Just because you say it doesn't make it truth, even if you say it over and over.
— COINdication (@COINdicationcom) August 14, 2019
While eToro‘s Mati Greenspan showed his opinion in the comments below:
Federal Judge says Craig Wright is a fraud.
https://t.co/ChlvOu9Lu2— Mati (@MatiGreenspan) August 15, 2019