'Craig Wright is a fraud and a liar' - Judge's brutal written ruling over fake Satoshi Nakamoto claims
THE Judge who presided over Craig Wright's trial and claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto - the inventor of Bitcoin - has this morning delivered his damning written statement.
More than 230 pages long, Mr Justice Mellor's report repeatedly slams the Australian fraudster as an 'accomplished liar' who faked his way into making people believe he was the creator of the original cryptocurrency.
"All his lies and forged documents were in support of his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto," the Judge says.
Before explaining each step of his judgements in the case, Mr Justice Mellor sets out the overall rulings.
He stated: "Having considered all the evidence and submissions presented tome during the Trial, I reached the conclusion the evidence was overwhelming. At that point, I made certain declarations (because I was satisfied they are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties), as follows..."
First, that Dr Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper.
Second, Dr Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period between 2008 and 2011.
Third, Dr Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin system.
Fourth, Dr Wright is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin Software.
SUMMARY
1. Dr Craig Steven Wright (‘Dr Wright’) claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto i.e. he claims to be the person who adopted that pseudonym, who wrote and published the first version of the Bitcoin White Paper on 31 October 2008, who wrote and released the first version of the Bitcoin Source Code and who created the Bitcoin system. Dr Wright also claims to be a person with a unique intellect, with numerous degrees and PhDs in a wide range of subjects, the unique combination of which led him (so it is said) to devise the Bitcoin system.
2. Thus, Dr Wright presents himself as an extremely clever person. However, in my judgment, he is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. In both his written evidence and in days of oral evidence under cross-examination, I am entirely satisfied that Dr Wright lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly. Most of his lies related to the documents he had forged which purported to support his claim. All his lies and forged documents were in support of his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.
3. Many of Dr Wright’s lies contained a grain of truth (which is sometimes said to be the mark of an accomplished liar), but there were many which did not and were outright lies. As soon as one lie was exposed, Dr Wright resorted to further lies and evasions. The final destination frequently turned out to be either Dr Wright blaming some other (often unidentified) person for his predicament or what can only be described as technobabble delivered by him in the witness box. Although as a person with expertise in IT security, Dr Wright must have thought his forgeries would provide convincing evidence to support his claim to be Satoshi or some other point of detail and would go undetected, the evidence shows, as I explain below and in the Appendix, that most of his forgeries turned out to be clumsy. Indeed, certain of Dr Wright’s responses in cross-examination effectively acknowledged that point: from my recollection at least twice he indicated if he had wanted to forge a document, he would have done a much better job.
4. If Dr Wright’s evidence was true, he would be a uniquely unfortunate individual, the victim of a very large number of unfortunate coincidences, all of which went against him, and/or the victim of a number of conspiracies against him.
5. The true position is far simpler. It is, however, far from simple because Dr Wright has lied so much over so many years that, on certain points, it can be difficult to pinpoint what actually happened. Those difficulties do not detract from the fact that there is a very considerable body of evidence against Dr Wright being Satoshi. To the extent that it is said there is evidence supporting his claim, it is at best questionable or of very dubious relevance or entirely circumstantial and at worst, it is fabricated and/or based on documents I am satisfied have been forged on a grand scale by Dr Wright. These fabrications and forgeries were exposed in the evidence which I received during the Trial. For that reason, this Judgment contains considerable technical and other detail which is required to expose the true scale of his mendacious campaign to prove he was/is Satoshi Nakamoto. This detail was set out in the extensive Written Closing Submissions prepared by COPA and the Developers and further points drawn out in their oral closing arguments.
6. At the same time, it is right to record that Counsel for Dr Wright put forward the best case which could possibly be presented for Dr Wright in their written and oral closing submissions, constrained as they were by the evidence I heard in this Trial.
7. However, at the conclusion of closing submissions I felt able to and did announce the result of the Identity Issue, namely whether Dr Wright is the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto i.e. the person who created Bitcoin in 2009.Having considered all the evidence and submissions presented to me during the Trial, I reached the conclusion the evidence was overwhelming.
Access the full ruling here... COPA v Wright Main Judgment.pdf - Google Drive
