A judge in Britain's High Court has ordered prosecutors to bring criminal charges against computer scientist Craig Wright after ruling that he lied “extensively and repeatedly” and committed forgery “on a large scale” in the service of his bid to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin.
In a ruling published on Tuesday, Judge James Mellor outlined several orders that would be imposed on Wright after finding in May that he had “engaged in the wilful production of false documents in support of false claims”. [to be Satoshi] and use the courts as a vehicle for fraud.”
By order of the judge, Wright will be prevented from publicly claiming that he is Satoshi and from taking or threatening legal action on that basis in any jurisdiction. He will be required to pin a message to the front page of his personal website and X feed detailing the findings against him.
The case, Mellor wrote, will also be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal cases in the UK, “for consideration of whether to bring a prosecution against Dr Wright.” It will be up to the CPS to decide whether the available evidence is sufficient to bring charges against Wright “for his gross perjury and falsification of documents” and “whether a warrant should be issued for his arrest.”
Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This latest ruling follows a six-week trial held earlier this year to resolve a civil lawsuit filed by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a nonprofit consortium of crypto companies, against Wright. The organization asked the court to declare that Wright is not the creator of bitcoin, preventing him from pursuing multiple separate lawsuits against bitcoin developers and other parties based on the claim.
During a difficult cross-examination, Wright was presented with documents containing hundreds of alleged evidence of forgery. Wright wove a patchwork of justifications in an attempt to dismiss the discrepancies, but failed to convince the judge. On March 14, the final day of the trial, Mellor delivered a rare swift verdict: “The evidence is overwhelming,” he told the courtroom. “Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.”
In a formal written judgment on May 20, Mellor expanded on the reasoning behind his ruling, confirming that Wright had lied about creating Bitcoin and had forged documents to support that lie. “I am fully convinced that Dr. Wright lied extensively and repeatedly to the court. All of his lies and forged documents were in support of his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto,” Mellor wrote.
In his final judgment, Mellor underscored the importance, as he sees it, of blocking any remaining avenues through which Wright might attempt to re-enact his claim to be Satoshi. “Dr Wright's sinister and mendacious campaign to establish himself as Satoshi over many years, which has included large-scale lies and falsifications, demands an extraordinary response,” he wrote.
