The High Court of the United Kingdom has ordered a freeze on the assets of computer scientist Craig Wright.
This ruling, disclosed in court documents filed on July 5, is intended to secure approximately £1.5 million in legal fees for journalist and podcaster Peter McCormack.
In 2019, Wright sued McCormack for defamation after McCormack publicly accused him of falsely claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin.
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Wright has maintained that he was Nakamoto since 2016. He used this claim to initiate multiple lawsuits against individuals and firms in the crypto industry for alleged copyright violations related to the Bitcoin white paper and protocol features.
However, Wright's claims were challenged in a lawsuit filed by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which includes several defendants targeted by Wright such as Kraken and Coinbase. COPA's lawyers argued:
Dr Wright has been shown to have lied on an extraordinary scale <...>. He has invented an entire biographical history, producing one tranche after another of forged documents to support it.
Judge James Mellor, after reviewing the evidence, concluded that Wright was not Nakamoto. This decision invalidated Wright's intellectual property claims and supported McCormack's defense in the defamation case.
On June 7, the COPA also requested Judge Mellor to order Wright to cover 85% of their legal costs from the case.
The UK High Court's decision to freeze Wright's assets not only provides financial relief to McCormack but also strengthens the court's stance on Wright's claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto.
