Craig Wright pulls out of 500,000 BTC settlement, Kleiman trial back on ๐จ This article is 5 years old...
Craig Wright pulls out of 500,000 BTC settlement, Kleiman trial back on
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Updated: Nov. 7, 2019 at 2:51 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Craig Wright has pulled out of the settlement with the Kleiman estate, claiming he was unable to finance the 500,000 BTC payoff. Wright lost the case against Kleiman earlier in August and was ordered by the court to hand over half of the 1 million bitcoin he mined before 2014 to the estate of his former partner.
Wright v. Kleiman case back on
Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, has broken the settlement agreement he made with Ira Kleiman, who represents the estate of his former partner Dave Kleiman.
The year-long legal battle for the 1 million bitcoin Kleiman and Wright mined together until 2014 ended earlier in August when a Florida court ordered Wright to pay Kleiman’s estate half of his BTC.
According to a Nov. 1 motion filed by Kleiman’s legal counselors Roche Freedman, both parties have reached a “non-binding settlement in principle” after several in-person meetings and numerous phone conferences.
The plaintiffs claim they stopped active litigation and focused on drafting binding settlement papers. However, about a month and a half into the process, they found their efforts to be futile.
Roche Freedman wrote in the motion:
“On October 30, without any advance notice, Plaintiffs were informed Craig could no longer finance the settlement and was โbreakingโ the non-binding settlement agreement.”
The Kleiman estate is now preparing for trial, with the next trial date set for Mar. 30, 2020.
Wright fights back against an important witness deposition
The first thing on Roche Freedman’s agenda was to obtain a deposition from James Wilson, who served as a chief financial officer of several Wright’s companies in Australia between 2012 and 2013. The plaintiffs believe Wilson’s testimony will be crucial for the case, as he presided over the companies at the time Wright claimed to have sold the interest in the companies to Dave Kleiman in exchange for BTC.
Wilson, who resides in Australia, agreed to have his deposition taken on Nov. 8, when he will be visiting Washington D.C.
However, Wright’s legal team said that they would not consent to the deposition, arguing that they haven’t received the 14-day notice for an out-of-state deposition required by law. The decision on whether they would consent to a video deposition at a later date will be made sometime next week, the court documents showed.
While this could prove to be a bureaucratic hassle for Kleiman’s estate, Wright’s conduct in the matter has certainly put a further strain on his already tarnished reputation with the court.
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Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Craig Steven Wright, commonly referred to as CSW, is an Australian computer scientist and business professional who has been at the center of controversy within the cryptocurrency community.
Dave Kleiman (1967 โ April 26, 2013) was a computer forensics expert, an author or co-author of multiple books and a frequent speaker at security-related events.