Boies Schiller Client Sues Alleged ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ Bitcoin Creator Craig Wright

Bitcoin, Blockchain and the Law, Crime, News | February 26, 2018 By:

A lawsuit has been filed against Craig Wright, the Australian who once claimed that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, alleging that he took bitcoins and intellectual property worth $5 billion from the estate of IT security expert Dave Kleiman. The suit was filed Feb. 14 in United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida by the Boies Schiller law firm.

Kleiman died in 2013. The lawsuit is over ownership of between 550,000 and 1.1 million bitcoins and intellectual property on various blockchain technologies.  “As of the date of filing, the ‎value of these assets far exceed $5,118,266,427.50 USD,” the estate’s lawyers wrote in a statement.

Wright and Kleiman had long worked together on various cryptography and data security issues.

The lawsuit claims that Wright plotted to steal Kleiman’s bitcoins and intellectual property rights associated with  cryptocurrency ‎technology. In addition, he allegedly forged backdated contracts to transfer Kleiman’s assets to his companies.

Wright allegedly called Kleiman’s brother shortly after Dave Kleiman’s death. In that conversation, he allegedly told him they were working on a project and that the brother should check Kleiman’s old computers for wallet files. It is unclear how Wright would have obtained the information from that to get at the files, as is alleged in the suit.

Wright has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

Wright identified himself as Satoshi Nakamato, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, back in 2016. He provided technical evidence, including the original encryption keys, that have been confirmed by prominent members of the bitcoin community. Some were convinced – others were not.