Man who claims he invented Bitcoin ordered to pay $4bn to ex-partner

Craig Wright, 49, was sued for more than $10m by the estate of his former business acquaintance

The Australian who claims to have invented Bitcoin a decade ago has been asked to surrender more than $4 billion of the digital currency to his ex-partner.

Craig Wright, 49, was sued for more than $10m by the estate of his former business acquaintance, the late David Kleiman, for a share of his Bitcoin earnings.

The lawsuit claims that Wright mined Bitcoins with Kleiman, a paralysed coder who died in 2013, in the early days of the currency.

Following his death, Kleiman’s estate claims Wright “perpetrated a scheme” to “seize Dave’s bitcoins”.  Wright denies there was a partnership.

Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach, Florida, ruled this week that Kleiman owned half of all Bitcoins that Craig Wright mined through 2013, and half of all intellectual property he created, according to a court transcript.

That would give title to more than 410,000 Bitcoins to Kleiman’s estate. One Bitcoin is currently worth £8,272.

Reinhart issued the ruling in sanctioning Wright for failing to comply with orders to turn over documents in the Kleiman estate’s lawsuit in which it claimed Wright illegally seized the assets and for lying.

The ultimate test may be whether Wright is actually able to deliver the Bitcoins. In his testimony Wright said he doesn’t know where all the Bitcoins are, and may not even be able to access them.

Any sale or transfer of the huge stake of coins could dramatically affect Bitcoin price.

The case was expected to shed light on whether Wright is really Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin.

“I am not required to decide, and I do not decide, whether Dr Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto,” Reinhart said. “I also am not required to decide, and I do not decide, the amount ofBitcoin, if any, that Dr Wright controls today.”

The judge didn’t end the case, ruling that Wright can still fight the lawsuit.

Ed Pownall, a spokesman for Wright, said that since it’s acknowledged now that Wright has the coins, that proves he’s Satoshi.

“Otherwise, he couldn’t have them in the first place,” Pownall said in an email.

The judge said he didn’t believe Wright when he claimed he doesn’t know where all the Bitcoins are, calling his testimony “perjurous.”

“Dr Wright’s demeanor did not impress me as someone who was telling the truth,” Reinhart said. “There is a strong and unrebutted circumstantial inference that Dr. Wright willfully created fraudulent documents.”

“Obviously, Craig disagrees with this,” Pownall said.

Wright has since warned that billions of dollars in Bitcoin could soon flood the cryptocurrency market after an unfavorable court hearing.

“The courts ruled that Ira (Kleiman, brother of Dave Kleiman) inherited those billions,” Wright wrote in an email seen by Bloomberg. “Now he has to pay estate tax on that if he wants it.”