The United Kingdom’s High Court froze Craig Wright’s assets
The UK High Court has issued a global freezing order against the assets of computer scientist and businessman Craig Wright, according to legal documents filed on July 5.
In the year In 2019, Wright's assets were frozen to help podcast host and entrepreneur Peter McCormack, who was sued for defamation, and to pay approximately 1.5 million British pounds ($1.9 million) in legal fees.
Cointelegraph reached out to McCormack for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Craig Wright Peter McCormack
The legal battle between Wright and McCormack stemmed from comments McCormack made against Wright and a YouTube video in which McCormack accused the computer scientist and entrepreneur of falsely claiming to be the inventor of Bitcoin (BTC), Satoshi Nakamoto.
Following McCormack's statements, Wright filed a lawsuit against the podcaster, claiming McCormack had defamed his character.
Related: Satoshi-era Bitcoin Wallet Rises After 14 Years, Sends 50 BTC to Binance
Court Wright is not Satoshi
Wright In 2016, he began claiming to be the fictional Satoshi Nakamoto, and used this claim as a basis for suing 13 Bitcoin Core developers. The Australian computer scientist claims that the developers have infringed the copyright on the Bitcoin white paper and argued that certain features of the decentralized protocol are similar to the Bitcoin database.
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), an industry group that includes many of the defendants listed in Wright's lawsuit, filed at least 50 pieces of evidence accusing Wright of fraud. In their closing arguments, COPA's attorneys said, “It [Wright] He invented an entire biography, one by one he is producing forged documents to support it.
After weighing the evidence, the court ruled that Wright was not Nakamoto, ending an intellectual property battle that could have a major impact on the entire Bitcoin ecosystem.
Wright Judge James Mellor's landmark ruling concluded that Wright's claim to be the inventor of Bitcoin was a legal basis for McCormack to destroy Wright's character and right to legal damages.
Magazine: Peter McCormack's Twitter regrets: ‘I feel like a dick' – X Hall of Flame
