A computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the founder of Bitcoin will be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider charges of perjury and forgery.
Craig Wright lost a legal battle in March against the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa), a non-profit group that includes cryptocurrency firms. Copa accused him of committing “forgery on an industrial scale” to support the “brazen lie” that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym for the creator of Bitcoin.
After a five-week trial, Mr. Justice Mellor concluded that there was “overwhelming” evidence proving that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto and had not authored the Bitcoin White Paper.
In a recent ruling, the same judge stated that he would refer “relevant” documents from the legal action to the CPS to determine if criminal charges should be brought against Wright.
Mr. Justice Mellor said: “In advancing his false claim to be Satoshi through multiple legal actions, Dr. Wright committed ‘a most serious abuse’ of the process of the courts of the UK, Norway, and the USA.
In these circumstances…I have no doubt that I should refer the relevant papers in this case to the CPS for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr. Wright for his wholesale perjury and forgery of documents and/or whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from wherever he now is.
All those matters are to be decided by the CPS.”
