So-Called Satoshi Referred To Crown Prosecution Services For Alleged Perjury

Craig Wright, the Australian who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) by British High Court Judge James Mellor. This development follows a lawsuit by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), as new court documents reveal.

On Tuesday, Judge Mellor ordered the referral to CPS, the chief prosecutorial agency of England and Wales. This decision came after a May ruling that Wright was not the pseudonymous crypto founder.

"In advancing his false claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, Dr. Wright committed 'a most serious abuse' of the process of the courts of the U.K., Norway, and the U.S.A.," Mellor stated. "If what happened in this case does not warrant referral, it is difficult to envisage a case that would."

The winding legal saga began when COPA, a collection of crypto organizations, sued Wright in 2021. The lawsuit challenged Wright's longstanding claim that he was the founder of Bitcoin, a stance seemingly at odds with the cryptocurrency's decentralized nature.

Mellor's judgment, calling Wright's allegations "brazen and elaborate," aims to legally stifle the businessman's claims of authorship over the years.

"The Court found that Dr Wright 'lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly' in his evidence and that he attempted to create a false narrative by forging documents 'on a grand scale' and presenting them in evidence," the court document reads. "Overall, all his lies and forged documents supported his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto."

COPA Calls Craig Wright Ruling A Win For Developers

The aftermath of Mellor's ruling further requires Wright to include a disclaimer on his website. The disclaimer must notify the public that he is not the mysterious figure behind the Bitcoin White Paper, whose true identity remains unknown.

"This decision is a win for developers, the entire open source community, and the truth, " a COPA spokesperson said shortly after the ruling.

**"For over eight years, Dr. Wright and his financial backers have lied about his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto and used that lie to bully and intimidate developers in the Bitcoin community.

That ends today with the court's ruling that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto."** Wright has also been ordered to post the disclaimer to his X account. However, he still needed to do so at the time of publication.