The ongoing legal dispute between the self-proclaimed creator of crypto, Craig Wright, and the estate of his former business partner, Dave Kleiman, is far from over. The latest filing is sure to confuse, enthuse and amuse you in equal measure, as it lays out a memorandum of joint discovery before the case heads back to court.
Thought the Craig Wright Case Was Over?
So did we. The whole debacle seemed to be reaching its closing stages. The judge found Wright to be somewhat less than credible months ago, ordering him to pay Kleiman’s legal costs and cough up half of his bitcoin.
As Bitcoinist reported last week, the only thing left for them to bicker about was supposedly how reasonable (or not) the claimed legal fees were. [Spoiler alert: I actually agreed with Wright that they indeed seemed outlandishly steep]
But the latest document submitted by Wright’s legal team spews ever-more spurious excuses, counter-points and delays, in a misguided attempt to avoid a telling-off.
The Disputed Tulip Trust
Remember that ‘Tulip Trust’ which supposedly held the disputed bitcoin and was inaccessible to Wright for increasingly inexplicable reasons?
Well one of Wright’s apparent co-conspirators in this scheme was a certain Dennis Mayaka, who sold him Tulip Trading Ltd, years after Wright claimed the trust was formed. Mayaka also submitted a sworn declaration, authenticating one of the alleged ‘Tulip Trust’ documents that the court found did not exist.
Wright is trying to limit the documentation he must produce, to, from, and mentioning Mayaka, and a list of five supposed trustees. Kleiman has requested that the scope of documentation regarding these individuals is expanded to include other relevant topics and key-words.
If The Bitcoin Ever Reached The Trust, That Is
At the time of his death, Dave Kleiman had fifteen electronic devices. Ira apparently threw one of them out, and formatted and deleted data from the others to make room for his personal photos and movie collection. Which admittedly, does seem to be an odd thing to do with your recently-deceased brother’s gadget collection.
Wright has had experts trying to recover the data from these devices in the belief that it could “shed light on the extent and location of Dave’s bitcoin holdings.”
If that wasn’t enough, Wright then suggests that Ira may have sold Dave’s bitcoin to finance a $400,000 cash purchase of a new home. The purchase occurred “just weeks after Dr. Wright told Ira to preserve Dave’s electronic devices because they might contain bitcoin wallets,” and Wright suggests that “By all reports, Ira was never a wealthy person.”
So Wright now seems to be questioning his own previous assertion that the disputed bitcoin were even placed in the trust.
Forgeries Stem From Craig Wright Being Hacked?
Craig Wright also requested communications between Kleiman and a long list of individuals, comprising former associates of Wright along with a list of supposed ‘detractors’, including all members of Blockstream and Bitcoin Core.
Wright claimed that a number of these people were believed to be involved in an alleged hack of his electronic devices. Kleiman countered that no evidence of any hack had ever been provided.
Blockstream CSO, Samson Mow tweeted that this supposed hack was perhaps the source of the forged Satoshi Nakamoto documents that Wright relied on in court.
OMFG. #Faketoshi actually demanded all communications between Ira Kleiman and Blockstream so he could check if we were involved in hacking him and making all the Satoshi forgeries.
I couldn't make this up if I tried. 😂 https://t.co/kvOWnpnA6Y
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) December 19, 2019
Two Cherries On A Freshly Half-Baked Cake
Still hungry for more madness? Well you’re in luck because the filing still has a couple of doozies.
Firstly, Craig Wright is intending to call his wife, Ramona Watts, as a witness in court. However, he is trying to restrict the scope of her deposition, and charging Kleiman £50-125k ($65-163k), for the costs of her counsel’s efforts to do this.
And finally, Kleiman has requested that Wright turns over copies of his diplomas and degrees. The implication appears to be that even this documentation has potentially been back-dated.
So despite what we said last week, we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath for this to finish any time soon.
Remember, a Craig Wright court-case is for life, not just for Christmas. And this certainly seems to be the gift that just keeps on giving!
What do you make of these latest accusations and findings? Add your thoughts below!
Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @Excellion
