{"id":1289,"date":"2024-05-20T12:21:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T12:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02dddf36500126ce"},"modified":"2024-05-20T12:21:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T12:21:43","slug":"craig-wright-lied-and-forged-documents-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/legal\/craig-wright-lied-and-forged-documents-judge-rules","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Fake Satoshi&#8217; Craig Wright Lied About Inventing Bitcoin: Judge Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p>A UK judge has ruled that <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/craig-wright\">Craig Wright<\/a>, who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, lied extensively and forged documents during a high-profile trial.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1o5pAmPnrOYh5zuTZQESMX5-ydefBGF-T\/view\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a scathing 231-page judgment<\/a>, Justice James Mellor stated that Wright &#8220;lied to the court repeatedly&#8221; and committed forgery &#8220;on a grand scale&#8221; in a failed attempt to prove he was Nakamoto.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A group of crypto firms brought the civil trial, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), that sought to prevent Wright from claiming he invented Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Judge has just published his ruling in the COPA vs Craig Wright lawsuit that Craig is not Satoshi Nakamoto.<\/p>\n<p>Massive victory for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Bitcoin<\/a> \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rCSewIhsA9\">pic.twitter.com\/rCSewIhsA9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BitcoinMagazine\/status\/1792498865968415120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">May 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Mellor wrote that Wright presented fake documents and gave false testimony in support of &#8220;his biggest lie &#8211; his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> The judge determined Wright is neither the author of the Bitcoin white paper nor the person behind the Satoshi pseudonym from 2008-2011.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, Mellor ruled Wright does not have copyright ownership that would enable him to sue Bitcoin developers, as he has done in the past. <\/p>\n<p>The judge slammed Wright&#8217;s narrative as &#8220;riddled with inconsistencies and absurd explanations&#8221; and said Wright was &#8220;not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/copa\">COPA<\/a> lawyers accused Wright of extensive deception and forgery throughout the trial. They also presented technical evidence exposing fake documents Wright justified with &#8220;fluent but ultimately unpersuasive answers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Following the damning judgment, Wright has already dropped several lawsuits premised on his being Nakamoto. However, Mellor&#8217;s ruling only prevents him from bringing new claims in the UK, not other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n<p>The case has raised questions about Wright&#8217;s litigation funding source. Online gambling tycoon Calvin Ayre is rumored to be backing Wright financially, but both men deny this.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the judge&#8217;s unequivocal findings represent a major blow to Wright&#8217;s reputation and credibility. COPA hopes the judgment will discourage further legal action from Wright despite potential appeals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For the Bitcoin community, it provides a major relief from his past claims and litigation threats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A UK judge ruled Craig Wright lied extensively and forged documents in trying to prove he created Bitcoin, preventing him from bringing more claims as Satoshi Nakamoto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":1290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[643,644,93,116],"class_list":{"0":"post-1289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-legal","8":"tag-copa","9":"tag-craig-wright","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-satoshi-nakamoto"},"author_data":{"id":2513,"name":"Vivek Sen","nicename":"vivek-sen-bitcoin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-vivek-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/screenshot-2024-05-20-at-82017am.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}