Bitcoin case: High Court refers Craig Wright to CPS and orders him cough up over £5m in costs

A High Court judge is referring Craig Wright over to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after he “lied to the court extensively and repeatedly” in the Bitcoin case earlier this year.

On 12 March, Mr Justice Mellor handed down a very rare quick judgment following the conclusion of a five-week trial.

He job was to decide if Australian computer scientist Dr Craig Wright, was who he claimed to be, the man behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the name for the author of the Bitcoin White Paper. The judge found that he was not the creator of Bitcoin, however, that was not even the tip of the iceberg.

When he handed down his written decision in May, the judge highlighted that Wright was a “liar” as he attempted to create a false narrative by forging documents “on a grand scale” and presenting them in evidence.

It noted that “all his lies and forged documents were in support of his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto.” And in addition to his false claim to be Satoshi through multiple legal actions, Wright committed “a most serious abuse” of the process of the courts of the UK, Norway and the USA.

The parties went for a “long hearing” in June to discuss consequential which included the issue of referring Wright to the CPS.

It was submitted to the judge, if what happened in this case does not warrant referral to the CPS, it is difficult to envisage a case which would.

Mr Justice Mellor agreed. He outlined that he will refer the relevant papers in this case to the CPS for consideration of whether criminal prosecution should be commenced against Wright “for his wholescale 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.”

The judge added that all of those matters are to be decided by the CPS.

In addition, one of the other witnesses for Wright, Stefan Matthews, will also be referred over to the CPS for lies. But Robert Jenkins won’t be as he is based in Australia.

In addition, the judge in his 64 page judgment on consequentials, orders Wright to pay 85 per cent of Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) and the blockchain developers (claimant parties) cost which came to £4.977m (total: £5.928m). He also ordered him to pay the application costs by Coinbase which totalled £900,000.