Craig Wright could face perjury charges for claiming to be the creator of Bitcoin

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright’s claims to be the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, could lead British prosecutors to charge him with perjury and forgery.

A new ruling in the case of Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) v Wright revealed that High Court judge James Mellor has referred Wright’s misconduct to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for consideration on charges of perjury for giving false testimony during the trial.

Wright faces perjury charges

Judge Mellor found that Wright had lied to bolster his false claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto during the trial. Although Wright has been adamant for years that he wrote the Bitcoin white paper, the judge ruled that none of his claims were true in March.

COPA sued Wright to prove he was not Satoshi Nakamoto and prevent him from suing the Bitcoin developers and related entities who denied his claims. Since 2019, Wright has waged a legal war against several developers to silence their critics and gain ownership of the Bitcoin network.

Interestingly, he did not mention anyone he sent bitcoin (BTC) to in the early days of the network. Therefore, the judge said that the evidence in the case overwhelmingly convinced him that Wright was not the creator of the cryptocurrency.

After the judge’s ruling on the case, a written judgment was filed two months later that found Wright guilty of large-scale forgery. Judge Mellor ruled that Wright lied repeatedly and extensively to support his bigger lie of being the creator of Bitcoin. As a result of Wright’s forgery, Judge Mellor believes the case merits a referral to the CPS for possible criminal proceedings.

“I have no doubt that I should refer the relevant documents in this case to the CPS to consider whether to prosecute Dr Wright for his wholesale perjury and falsification of documents and/or whether should present an arrest warrant issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from where he is now,” Judge Mellor wrote.

Wright to cease legal proceedings

While the case is before the CPS, Judge Mellor has granted certain orders and injunctions against Wright. For six months, the self-proclaimed Nakamoto must post a court notice on his website, Slack and X accounts.

In addition, Wright cannot pursue further legal proceedings in the case, and is prohibited from threatening to engage in legal proceedings as he has done in the past.

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