By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
The Kleiman vs Wright case that has dragged for a while has now taken another step back as Wright has said he is unable to finance the settlement.
One of the most popular court cases in the crypto industry is the one between the Kleiman estate and Bitcoin SV founder, Craig Wright. The case, however, took a new turn recently, when a certain document filed on Oct. 30 in the Southern District of Florida, revealed that Wright has pulled out of the settlement already negotiated, claiming that he’d be unable to finance it.
Before now, the plaintiffs had somewhat suspended active pursuance of the case because it had already begun to focus more on a settlement with the defendant. The negotiations seemed to be making some headway and Wright even officially asked for the deadline of his settlement payments to be extended, in order to give him more time to meet up. However, things changed significantly a few days ago when Wright suddenly pulled out of the agreement. According to the document:
“On October 30, without any advance notice, Plaintiffs were informed Craig could no longer finance the settlement and was ‘breaking’ the non-binding settlement agreement.”
The document also asks the Court for the deposition of James Wilson, who used to be the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Wright back in 2012 and 2013. It currently does seem like court cases are now back in motion and the Wilson deposition would be a strong point for the plaintiffs.
It’s unlikely that Wright will get any kind of reprieve from the new proceedings because so far, the case hasn’t really progressed in his favor. Also, at different times in the past, judges who have sat on the case had specifically ruled that Wright has not been very forthcoming with his testimonies and has even been tagged with perjury because he’s deliberately offered documents to the Court which proved to be false and which he knew to be false before offering.
Even with the strong chance that the plaintiffs will win when this new round of court activity is over, it still might be difficult for them to collect if it’s true that Wright is really having trouble coming up with the required payment. It should be noted, however, that the plaintiffs have said that during the settlement negotiations, Wright never suggested either directly or through his attorneys, that the payment would be a problem for him.
The charges against Wright began last year when Ira Kleiman sued in the stead of his deceased brother, who used to be Wright’s business partner. The Kleiman estate has accused Wright of deliberately manipulating documents, giving falsehoods, and also holding on to a large amount of Bitcoins which was borne out of the partnership between them. He has since lost the case and is required to part with half of all Bitcoins mined before Kleiman’s death.
New Satoshi
Wright is quite popular for his very outspoken style, the fact that he has repeatedly stated that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto – the anonymous creator of Bitcoin – and also going after people who claim he isn’t Nakamoto. Interestingly, another person has come out again to claim that he’s the real Nakamoto. Jörg Molt, a German entrepreneur not only claims to be the co-founder of Bitcoin but also asserts that he currently holds 250,000 Bitcoins. Some members of the crypto community have already begun to draw parallels between Molt’s declaration and the fact that another self-proclaimed Nakamoto, all of a sudden can’t pay his settlement.