Craig Wright To Appear In Court Over Allegations Of Stealing $1.1M Of Bitcoin

Self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator, Craig Wright is to appear in a Florida court next week over allegations of stealing 1.1 million bitcoin. His motion to postpone the case and to allow attendance through a video conference was earlier rejected by the US District judge Beth Bloom.

Wright had said that appearing in person would cause him "unjustifiable hardship". Moreover, his legal representatives said the evidence supplied by the plaintiffs was insufficient to demand their client to fly halfway around the world for just a two-hour legal proceeding.

Wright’s previos filing, according to CCN, states that, “Dr Wright is a foreign citizen who lives and works in the United Kingdom. The burdens associated with travel to Florida for mediation at this juncture constitute good cause to permit attendance by video conference.”

However, as per the Court’s order, Wright to to appear in person on June 18 to face Ira Kleiman et al (representing Dave Kleiman’s estate) in court. The court order read that, “After a review of the record and the submissions by the parties, the Court does not find that a continuation of mediation is warranted. The Court further agrees with the Plaintiffs that personal appearance by the parties will promote meaningful participation at mediation.”

Finance Magnates said the case had been filed against the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto by the estate of the late IT security expert Dave Kleiman, alleging him of stealing between 500,000 and one million bitcoin, the value of which exceeded $8 billion at the time of writing its value. The court papers state that Dave Kleiman was an IT expert, as well as much expertise in computer forensics and security, in Palm Beach, Florida.

The relationship with Wright was mostly ‘hidden’ and was born out of a mutual obession with cryptography and data security. “Leaked emails from Wright to Kleiman showed that they had been discussing a new form of electronic money, months before the launch of Nakamoto’s whitepaper about Bitcoin in January of 2009.” The CCN said the ‘identity of a Satoshi is relevant’ to this case. “The Kleiman estate claimed previously that ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ was the name signifying a partnership between Kleiman and Wright, when they both created Bitcoin together.”