Bitcoin creator slapped with $10 billion lawsuit
Craig Wright, the Australian who has previously claimed to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is the subject of a multi billion dollar lawsuit. Wright is being sued by the estate of David Kleiman, who was thought to have co-created the cryptocurrency with the Australian. Kleiman passed away in 2013, but Kleiman’s brother Ira claims that Wright somehow appropriated his former partner’s bitcoin hoard.
According to Motherboard, either Wright and Kleiman were involved in the creation of Bitcoin, or were there moments after the platform was created. Consequently, they apparently had access to mining tools at its earliest time, enabling them to rack up a small fortune in cryptocurrency. The pair are thought to have controlled anything up to 1.1 million BTC, although it’s clear that nobody knows the figures for sure.
The case itself centers on Wright’s conduct shortly after Kleiman died in 2013, and Wright subsequently contacted Kleiman’s elderly father. Wright stands accused of fraudulently claiming that David Kleiman had signed over ownership and control of W&K, a company Kleiman ran, to Wright. He supported this with documents that, as far as Ira Kleiman is concerned, were fraudulent, and signed with a fake signature.
The lawsuit also says the pair ran a Florida-based company together called W&K Info Defense Research LLC that aimed to develop Bitcoin-based technologies from 2011 until Kleiman’s death in 2013. The suit calls Wright a “business partner” of this venture but names Dave Kleiman as the “sole member” of W&K, giving him ownership of all bitcoins mined under the auspices of that venture.
This just brings in additional reasons on how to be very careful with any type of investing with Bitcoin and people who tend to inform you they can control the system.
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