Judge freezes Craig Wright’s assets to prevent court cost evasion

A UK judge approved the freezing of £6 million ($7.6 million) worth of Craig Wright’s assets to prevent him from avoiding court costs related to his claim that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of the Bitcoin BTC
-1.98%
network. 

“Understandably, that gave rise to serious concerns on COPA’s part that Dr Wright was implementing measures to seek to evade the costs consequences of his loss at trial,” Judge James Mellor wrote the document.

The judge approved the so-called ‘worldwide freezing order’ on behalf of Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) to help cover COPA’s overall court costs of $8,471,225 (£6,703,747.91.). 

“Although I have not yet heard detailed argument on costs, it is undoubtedly the case that COPA (and the Developers) are the winning party,” Mellor said. “They are highly likely (to say the least) to obtain an order for their costs.”

Wright is an Australian computer scientist who used assertions of being Satoshi Nakamoto to issue copyright claims related to the Bitcoin network, such as requesting two websites take down the Bitcoin whitepaper in January 2021. 

COPA sued Wright in April 2021, challenging his claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto and thus has copyright over Bitcoin. After hearing testimonies from early Bitcoin developers such as Martti Malmi and others, the same judge ruled that “overwhelming” evidence indicated that Wright is not Nakamoto on March 14 of this year, The Block previously reported. 

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