Judge says Craig Wright ‘not as clever as he thinks he is’
A UK judge has branded litigious computer scientist Craig Wright an arrogant liar who frequently uses ‘technobabble’ and isn’t ‘nearly as clever as he thinks he is.’
The damning comments were made by Mr. Justice Mellor in a written judgment to accompany the March verdict in the civil lawsuit brought by the non-profit Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) that asked the court to rule that Wright didn’t create the world’s most famous cryptocurrency.
Wright has been attempting to convince the world that he is Bitcoin’s creator ever since he claimed to the Australian Tax Office in 2013 that he controlled in excess of 1 million bitcoins. He has subsequently sought on multiple occasions to shut down anybody who challenges this view.
It was hoped that such a ruling would prevent the famously litigious Wright from continuing with separate lawsuits against a number of Bitcoin developers and prominent crypto companies, including Coinbase, Block, and Kraken.
In the judgment, Mellor confirms his view that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, did not author Bitcoin’s whitepaper in 2009, and did not create the ‘Bitcoin system.’
However, he will likely find it far more difficult to take that approach in the future following the outcome of this high-profile case and its accompanying no-holds-barred judgment. Mellor also stated that:
- “In both his written evidence and in days of oral evidence under cross-examination, I am entirely satisfied that Dr. Wright lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly.”
- “Dr. Wright resorted to further lies and evasions. The final destination frequently turned out to be either Dr. Wright blaming some other (often unidentified) person for his predicament or what can only be described as technobabble delivered by him in the witness box.”
- “I do not believe that Satoshi would ever have resorted to forgery in his attempt to prove he was Satoshi. He would not have backdated documents or altered the clock on his computer(s), for the simple reason that there was and is no need for him to do so.”
- “The arrogance he [Wright] displayed was at odds with what comes through from Satoshi’s writing. In short, in his writing and attitude Dr. Wright just doesn’t sound or act like Satoshi.”
Read more: Craig Wright hits COPA trial with 164,000 pages of evidence
Wright’s cross-examination in court threw up a number of bizarre moments. These include Qudos Bank CIO David Bridges claiming that Wright had become “very annoying” but was probably Satoshi because he was interested in “Japanese stuff,” Wright attempting to submit a box of old papers that his wife had apparently found, and his claims to have destroyed the hard drive containing Satoshi’s private keys while high on sedatives.
Wright also didn’t do his case any favors when he mistakenly referred to Satoshi in the third-person.
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