Craig ‘Satoshi’ Wright loses $5B in bitcoin to estate of former business partner
Craig Wright, the man who on several occasions has claimed to be bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is as much as $5 billion in bitcoin poorer after he lost a case with the estate of a former business partner.
Ira Kleiman, the brother of Wright’s late business partner David Kleiman, sued Wright on behalf of the Kleiman estate for half of the bitcoin the pair allegedly mined between 2009 and 2011, around 1.1 million bitcoin worth a staggering $11.2 billion at today’s bitcoin price.
Kleiman was successful, as Southern District Court of Florida magistrate Bruce Reinhart ordered that Wright hand over half the bitcoin mined by the pair before 2014 and well as 50% of any intellectual property registered during the pair’s partnership.
The exact amount to be handed over is not entirely clear given there was some argument as to how many bitcoin Wright held. There were reports that it was more than 410,000 bitcoin, while others described it as just under 500,000.
Whatever the number, the dollar equivalents are staggering. At the low end, it’s $4.2 billion and at the high end it’s just over $5 billion. Wright himself suggested it was the higher figure in an interview with Modern Consensus where he falsely suggested that the Kleiman estate would have to pay estate tax on the settlement. Florida does not have an estate tax and the amount, at the time of Kleiman’s death, fell below the threshold for federal estate taxes.
While being $5 billion in bitcoin out of pocket may hurt, Wright ended up being somewhat lucky that he wasn’t facing charges. Magistrate Reinhart found that Wright had “perjured himself,” “lied” and “falsified documents.” Perjury in Florida is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Wright, not one to let a $5 billion blow get in the way of a good story, is now claiming that the court ruling confirmed that he and Kleiman were Satoshi Nakamoto, whereas he had previously claimed he alone was Nakamoto.
“I’m the asshole who keeps inventing things that other people need,” Wright told Modern Consensus. “I’m not the good media personality. You think I’m gonna complain because I only get to keep $6 billion? And I’m the only surviving member of Satoshi? The judge ruled it was a partnership. I’m the asshole Satoshi. And Dave was the nice one. So have a nice day.”
Image: Maxpixel
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.
One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.
Join our community on YouTube
Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.
THANK YOU