Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who has long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, is under criminal investigation in the UK for alleged perjury.
According to a Reuters report, Wright faces charges after a judge found him to have repeatedly lied and fabricated documents to support his claims.
The 54-year-old has filed lawsuits around the world, including the US and UK, asserting his role as Bitcoin’s inventor. This culminated in a recent London High Court case.
The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) took Wright to court to prevent him from suing Bitcoin developers and to preserve the open-source nature of the world’s best-known and most popular cryptocurrency.
Earlier judgement
In March, Justice James Mellor ruled that evidence against Wright’s Satoshi claims was “overwhelming.” A May written judgment further stated that Wright had lied “extensively” and produced “large-scale” forgeries throughout the case.
On Tuesday, the judge issued a further ruling, referring Wright to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to determine “whether a prosecution should be commenced” for perjury and document forgery.
Mellor also requested the CPS consider whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from his current location.
The judge said Wright’s current whereabouts remain unknown. Justice Mellor noted in his ruling, “The evidence shows Dr Wright has left his previous residence in Wimbledon (London) and appears to have left the UK.
What you should know
According to Investopedia, Satoshi Nakamoto a pseudonym used by the person or people who introduced the concept of Bitcoin in a 2008 paper, created Bitcoin in 2009.
- Nakamoto remained active in the creation of Bitcoin and the blockchain until about 2010 but has not been heard from since.
- The Satoshi Nakamoto persona appeared to be involved in the early days of Bitcoin, working on the first version of the software in 2007.2 Communication to and from Nakamoto was conducted via email.
- The lack of personal and background details meant it was, and is, impossible to find out the actual identity behind the name.
- Nakamoto was not the first to hit on the concept of cryptocurrency but was the one to solve a fundamental problem that prevented its adoption: Unlike paper currency, cryptocurrency could be spent more than once. This was known as “double-spending,” and Nakamoto solved it by proposing a peer-to-peer distributed timestamp server.
- However, the inability to put a face to the name has led to significant speculation about Nakamoto’s identity, especially since cryptocurrencies have increased in number, popularity, notoriety, and value.