An Australian computer scientist, Craig Wright, who has long claimed to be the creator of bitcoin, was found in contempt of court on Thursday after pursuing a $1.2 trillion (£911 billion) lawsuit
against Jack Dorsey's payments company, Block, in the UK.
Wright has asserted for years that he authored the 2008 bitcoin white paper under the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto," the name associated with the cryptocurrency's invention. However, a judge at London's High Court ruled in May that Wright had repeatedly lied and forged evidence to bolster his claims. This decision followed a case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which sought to prevent Wright from suing bitcoin developers based on his contested claim of intellectual property ownership.
COPA argued that Wright's lawsuit against Block and other parties violated an injunction barring him from initiating litigation based on his claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto or to hold rights over bitcoin. The group’s lawyer, Jonathan Hough, described the lawsuit as a "desperate publicity stunt" aimed at maintaining support from Wright's followers.
On Thursday, Judge James Mellor ruled Wright in contempt of court. Wright did not attend the hearing where the contempt finding was discussed, though he appeared remotely for his sentencing. When asked by the judge, Wright declined to disclose his current location.
Judge Mellor sentenced Wright to one year in prison, suspended for two years, citing what he described as a "flagrant breach" of the court's orders. The judge also dismissed Wright's lawsuit against Block and others involved.
Wright has indicated plans to appeal the contempt finding. However, last month, he was denied permission to appeal the court's earlier ruling that he did not invent bitcoin. Photo by Isokivi, Wikimedia commons.