By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 24th, 2024
Wright went on to state the reason behind the transfer of 573,500 Bitcoin to him from David Kleiman. According to him, David took control of his assets temporarily due to the battle he was facing with the Australian Taxation Office who wanted to seize his assets.
The ongoing civil case filed by Ira Kleiman against the controversial bearer of the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” to prove his deceased brother has a stake in the whopping Bitcoin units in the custody of Satoshi has still not been settled as no concrete evidence as shown. However, the world anticipates the end of the case soon.
Ira Kleiman, the late David Kleiman’s brother and only living family member, is a plaintiff representing David Kleiman estate and W&K Info Defense Research, LLC in the lawsuit against computer scientist Craig Wright, alleged to be partnered with David Kleiman in writing the Bitcoin white paper under the famous pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
He argued that David and Wright were business partners since the early mining days of 1.1 million Bitcoin through W&K Info Defense Research, LLC. He is demanding a significant amount of the said units (equivalent to $70 billion) believed to be stashed in a safe place.
However, this may be a hard-to-prove case, as Ira Kleiman himself had destroyed evidence unconsciously after reformatting the laptop and hard drives of his deceased brother that could have helped prove his case right. Aside from that, throughout the life of David Kleiman, he never sold any Bitcoin or claimed possession of any Bitcoin despite the fact he was in debt.
If at all such existed between Kleiman and Wright, his best friend and business partner Patrick Paige, who was also a former police officer, would be aware and possibly acted on the case if he was ever scammed of any asset. This suit will be needless if in the end, Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto.
How Wright is Defending His Case
The defense, Craig Wright acknowledges the fact that he partnered David who assisted him to create Bitcoin IP through W&K Info Defense Research, LLC. However, he argued the said entity did not mine Bitcoin in question. Wright noted that David also helped in editing the Bitcoin white paper, and it does not translate to co-written.
Wright went on to state the reason behind the transfer of 573,500 Bitcoin to him from David Kleiman. According to him, David took control of his assets temporarily due to the battle he was facing with the Australian Taxation Office who wanted to seize his assets.
While David Kleiman, who was a computer forensics expert, accomplished many things before his death, they were not as notable as being involved in Bitcoin. With the plaintiff banking on the evidence from this “exaggeration,” it is yet unclear how the jury would view this piece of information.
How the Case Is Panning Out
As the controversial trial begins its third week and with the plaintiff soon to end their witness presentation and examination, it must be noted that there has been no slam-dunk evidence presented in court so far that would make everyone, including the jury, believe that David Kleiman actually was a partner with Wright in the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and that the two mined the Satoshi coins in a business partnership.
Dr. Matthew Edman, a digital forensics investigator for the FBI could only help buttress his claim, as he testfied that based on its professional opinion, some of the emails that Wright sent were altered or forged.
Although, all were conjectures and speculations, he stated under oath that he believed Wright may have forged the cryptographic signature of David a specific email presented in 2014. However, point to note in that Is that someone aside from David Kleiman had access to his PGP private key.
Day 9 of the Kleiman v Wright trial has ended without the defense getting to cross-examine Dr. Edman, which will be continued Tuesday. As Dr. Edman is the plaintiff’s last witness, everyone is anticipating the case that the defense will make.