Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin and the chief scientist at blockchain firm nChain filed a motion to dismiss the multi-billion dollar lawsuit accusing him of stealing bitcoins from an alleged business partner has been denied.
On Thursday, a ruling delivered by Beth Bloom in South Florida, the United States District judge dismissed two counts brought forth by the plaintiff, Ari Kleiman, while maintaining that the defendant, Craig Wright, will answer seven counts before or on January 10 next year.
https://twitter.com/andreas_stock/status/982006170360733701
The case
Reportedly, Wright had a business partnership with Ari’s brother, the late Dave Kleiman. Notably, before the crypto bear ate into BTC’s price the suit was as much as $10 billion. Kleiman was a cryptographer, author, and computer forensics scientist and had co-founded a firm with Wright known as W&K Info Defense Research LLC for the purposes of mining bitcoin.
As per CCN article, Kleiman was the registered agent as well as the managing member of the firm, while Wright’s various roles included “authorized representative, lead researcher, technical contact, legal agent and representative and Director/Australian Agent.”
Kleiman dies five years ago following a long battle with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Wright has allegedly taken advantage of the situation and fraudulently transferred bitcoins owned by W&K to himself. According to the plaintiff, Kleiman’s estate is entitled to a minimum of 300,000 bitcoins plus forked assets such as Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Cash.
When the case was initially filed in February this year, Wright was accused of stealing as many as 1.1 million bitcoins, which at that time was worth over US$10 billion. Depending on the ownership structure of W&K, the lawsuit at the time estimated that the estate was owed between 550,000 and 1,100,000 bitcoins.
Wright’s Plea
Wright raised various objections including the “lack of standing, the failure to bring this action as a derivative suit, res judicata (claim preclusion due to the fact that a matter has already been judged), forum non conveniens (a legal doctrine allowing certain courts to dismiss a case in order for another more appropriate court to hear it), the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations, international abstention, lack of personal jurisdiction and the failure to state legally sufficient claims.”
While the lawsuit does have financial implications it also might disclose a secret that every enthusiast wants to know, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. While Dave Kleiman has been cited as perhaps being the famed Bitcoin creator by an early developer of the cryptocurrency, Jeff Garzik, just last month.
bestadmin
