Man who claimed to be inventor of bitcoin referred to UK prosecutors for alleged perjury

LONDON — Craig Wright, an Australian man who claimed to be the inventor of bitcoin, was on Tuesday referred to British prosecutors for committing alleged perjury. On Tuesday, British High Court Judge James Mellor decided to refer a case against Wright’s claim to be the inventor of bitcoin to the Crown Prosecution Service — which is the organization that prosecutes criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales. The CPS will now consider whether Wright should be prosecuted for what Mellor called “wholescale perjury and forgery of documents,” and decide on whether a warrant for arrest and possible extradition is needed. Wright has remained mostly silent since a High Court ruling was issued claiming that he had lied “extensively and repeatedly” in his evidence attempting to prove the case that he was bitcoin’s inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright attempted in the London court case to prove he was the original inventor of bitcoin, and therefore held intellectual property rights, including ownership of copyright in the bitcoin white paper and initial versions of the bitcoin software. The bitcoin protocol is a decentralized, open-source network and no single entity can gain control over it. Mellor ruled that Wright attempted to create a false narrative by forging documents “on a grand scale,” presenting them as evidence in court. He added that by advancing his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto through legal action in the U.K. — as well as Norway and the U.S. — Wright committed “a most serious abuse” of the process of the courts. On Wright’s official website, which was wiped of content shortly after Mellor’s ruling, a legal notice was posted on Tuesday which read: “DR CRAIG STEVEN WRIGHT IS NOT SATOSHI NAKAMOTO.” This notice, which reiterates the ruling that Wright was not the inventor of bitcoin, notes that Wright has been ordered not to commence any legal proceedings based on his false claims — or counterclaims — and that he must not threaten any such proceedings. Wright’s holding company, Tulip Trading, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.