judge freezes Craig Wright’s assets to prevent default

After a UK court rejected his claim to be the creator of Bitcoin (BTC), Craig Wright suffers a new defeat in court. This defeat came from judge James Mellor, who ordered the freezing of 6 million pounds sterling of Craig Wright’s assets worldwide. The value, according to the current price, corresponds to almost R$40 million.

According to the court order, the purpose of the blockade is to prevent Wright from transferring these assets abroad and defaulting in court. This is because as he lost his case, Wright will have to pay the costs of the process. Therefore, the court wants to prevent him from claiming that he does not have the money.

Craig Wright’s asset freezing decision

On March 14, Judge James Mellor heard the case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) against the claim that Wright was Satoshi Nakamoto. The Australian maintained his alleged identity since 2016 and eventually sued anyone who denied his arguments.

However, Wright never offered arguments that proved that he was in fact Satoshi. He never signed a transaction using wallet keys linked to Satoshi, for example. The lack of evidence led COPA to launch proceedings against Wright.

At trial, Mellor also concluded that Wright did not author the Bitcoin white paper or early versions of the cryptocurrency’s software. With that, he determined that “Faketoshi” (the nickname given to Wright because of his fake) did not have any intellectual property rights over both contents.

Shortly after the result, Wright acted to hide assets. He notified Companies House, the UK companies register, that shares in his company, RCJBR Holding, had been transferred to DeMorgan. This company is organized under the laws of Singapore, far from the scope of British justice.

Prevention

According to a ruling dated Wednesday and published on the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund website, COPA’s costs total around £6.7 million. Therefore, Mellor ordered the blocking of assets to prevent Wright from making new transfers.

“Understandably, this gave rise to serious concerns on the part of COPA that Dr. Wright was implementing measures to attempt to avoid the costs arising from his loss at trial,” Mellor wrote, referring to the share transfer.

Of course, Wright could avoid this blockade if he had something that no one could confiscate. Something like, for example, the almost 1 million Bitcoins (BTC) that he claimed to possess when he claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.