The legal inquiry into Craig Wright's claims as the inventor behind bitcoin has been escalated to the Crown Prosecution Service for potential perjury and forgery charges.
In March, Wright faced a setback in court when he attempted to enforce his claim against cryptocurrency businesses who had challenged him priorly. Presiding judge Mr Justice Mellor swiftly delivered an oral verdict shortly after the proceedings concluded, declaring that the evidence pointed to Dr. Wright not being the author of bitcoin's foundational document.
Judge Mellor detailed in his written judgment how Wright had repeatedly misrepresented facts both in writing and verbally. He highlighted Wright's forging of documents intended to support his claims, stating that it constituted a severe abuse of the judicial process across multiple jurisdictions including UK, Norway, and USA courts.
The allegations against Wright included potential document forgery prior to trial commencement. During cross-examination, when confronted with these accusations, Wright dismissed them and questioned his expert's qualifications. He infamously remarked that if he had indeed forged a document, it would be flawless.
On Tuesday, Judge Mellor decided to refer "relevant" documents from the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to deliberate on whether there is enough ground for criminal charges against Wright. The CPS will determine if Wright should face legal action concerning his widespread perjury and forgery or consider other options such as arrest warrants or extradition, where applicable.
This decision came after an earlier court case saw Wright triumph over a bitcoin advocate who accused him of deceitful behavior, leading to the celebrant withdrawing their defense on truth grounds. However, this victory for Wright was not significant due to the judge's subsequent ruling that he had presented a willfully false argument and granted only nominal damages totaling £1.
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