Key Takeaways
- Craig Wright, who claims to be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, won a $50B case against Kleiman estate
- Dave’s Kleiman’s brother Ira Kleiman had sued for half of 1.1 million Bitcoins that Wright supposedly holds
- Dave Kleiman is said to have helped Wright create Bitcoin and blockain technologies
YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) – Australian computer scientist Craig Wright shot to fame in 2016 after claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin ( BTC). He has now won a significant court case in the United States against the estate of Dave Kleiman. As a result, he gets the exclusive right to keep $50 billion in Bitcoin.
The jury in a federal court in Miami ruled in favor of Wright. According to the verdict, Wright is not liable to Dave Kleiman’s estate over partnership breach allegations. Kleiman, now deceased, was a computer forensic expert who helped Wright create Bitcoin.
In 2018, Kleiman’s brother Ira Kleiman filed a lawsuit in a Florida court, accusing Wright of illegally acquiring Dave Kleiman’s Bitcoins. The plaintiff also alleged Wright appropriated the intellectual property rights of various blockchain technologies that the accused built together with his deceased brother.
As per reports, Kleiman’s estate was suing for at least half of the 1.1 million Bitcoins originally minted and stored in Satoshi’s wallet. The stashed BTC in the wallet is currently worth over $50 billion.
Recommended: Bitcoin week ahead Ep20: BTC calm near $50K ahead of CPI data
Craig Wright now has exclusive claims to Satoshi
Following revelations that Kleiman had worked on the Bitcoin white paper before his death, some critics of Wright peddled the theory that perhaps he was the real Satoshi and not Wright. The dispute became more than just financial to the community. After all, it would finally prove if Wright’s claims held any water.
Although the jury did not have a task to decide if Wright was indeed Satoshi, the verdict seems to have done just that. Since the Kleiman estate failed to prove that Dave Kleiman and Craig Wright were business partners in the project, the jury ruled that Kleiman had no claims to be a founder or co-founder of the technology. Essentially, with this verdict, Wright has eliminated his biggest challenger to the title.
“This has been a remarkably good outcome, and I feel completely vindicated,”
Wright said following the verdict.
However, the jury also ordered Wright to pay $100 million to W&K Info Defense, a partnership venture that Wright and Kleiman formed together. The company will receive the money as compensation for damages over a breach of intellectual property rights related to W&K Info Defense Research LLC. The jury found Wright guilty of conversion.
The Kleiman state, on the other hand, will get nothing.
“We are immensely gratified that our client, W&K Information Defense Research LLC, has won $100,000,000 reflecting that Craig Wright wrongfully took bitcoin-related assets from W&K,”
a counsel representing W&K said.
Recommended: The crypto dip: Buying opportunity or the start of a bubble burst
Ira Kleiman may have another loss in store
As Ira Kleiman of the Kleiman estate walks out bruised, he may have more reasons to be disappointed in the days to come. The jury rejected six out of the seven allegations he brought against Craig Wright. While it may seem that he can at least celebrate for the $100 million compensation that Wright has to pay to W&K Info Defense, the reality is different.
Kleiman has a separate case pending in a Florida court which Craig Wright’s ex-wife has brought against him.
According to Lynn Wright, Ira Kleiman has no right to use W&K Info Defense to sue her ex-husband as she owns a significant stake in the company. Kleiman has publicly claimed to be the sole representative of the company. Mrs. Wright’s petition, on the other hand, insists otherwise.
The judge had decided to stay the case until the Wright Vs Kleiman verdict. With the verdict out, the court may now rule Ira Kleiman had no right to represent the company in the first place.
Recommended: Ethereum’s bull flag setup fights two dreaded selloff indicators as ETH rises back above $4.4K
Bitcoin SV rallies following Craig Wright verdict
As soon as the verdict was out, the price of Bitcoin SV (BSV) pumped over 40%. Bitcoin SV (BSV) emerged after a hard fork of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain in 2018. BCH had forked from the BTC blockchain in 2017.
Wright’s blockchain technology company nChain is the developer of the Bitcoin SV node. Wright has been a vocal supporter of BSV since its inception.
Bitcoin SV aims to fulfill the original vision of the Bitcoin protocol as described in Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper.
Andrés Rivero, Wright’s legal representative, added fuel to BSV’s rally. He claimed Wright had restored the original Bitcoin protocol through the Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV).
“Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision will allow people to steadily become part of the global capitalist world–start selling, trading, building themselves, not because they have to take handouts from the government, but because they can work with dignity for themselves. Dr. Wright plans to make Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision something that’s sustaining and sustainable that lasts,”
he announced.
However, while Craig Wright may have had his day in court, the story is not over yet. The entire crypto community will be looking to see what other concrete evidence he will bring that he is Satoshi. Meanwhile, his bold claims have cost him $100 million.
