Dave Kleiman’s estate might have a difficult time reclaiming its alleged half of Craig Wright’s $10 billion Bitcoin fortune – and not just because critics say it likely doesn’t even exist.
Wright, who lives in the UK, suggested that he won’t make it easy for the US courts to enforce an order to pay up, assuming that order eventually comes.
Craig Wright’s ‘Goose May Well Be Cooked’
Speaking to cryptocurrency journalist Jon Southurst in a video interview, the self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator gloated that because he doesn’t own any assets in the US, the court wouldn’t simply be able to seize his funds (timestamp – 36:22).
“Just an order from a [US] magistrate isn’t possible in England anyway. And I am not living in America. And I have no assets in America.”
Of course, Wright hasn’t been ordered to surrender half of the BTC he and the late Dave Kleiman allegedly mined shortly after the cryptocurrency’s launch. Not yet, anyway, but lawyer Stephen Palley says the “goose may well be cooked.”
OK. Wright hasn’t been ordered to pay anyone anything yet or transfer bitcoin. Judicial proceedings take time. The goose may be well cooked but it is still in oven. Factual findings have been made but there no judgment yet. That will take moar time + moar court. pic.twitter.com/cTxSF1uTwU
— Palley (@stephendpalley) August 28, 2019
In the ruling delivered by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, it was determined that Craig Wright and Dave Kleiman had a 50/50 partnership. The court also determined that all the Bitcoin that was mined before Kleiman died in April 2013 belonged to the partnership.
Reinhart further ruled that Kleiman’s estate has an ownership interest in not just the Bitcoin mined but also the intellectual property developed during the partnership.
Still, Wright doesn’t seem concerned:
“There’s no order to pay yet. It still has go through a trial and all the rest.”
Self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator building ‘very much anti-Twitter’ tech
Wright also railed against the allegedly-antagonistic reporting that followed the delivery of the ruling in the civil case earlier this week.
“The world is sitting there making judgments on part of the information as normal. This is crypto…fake news Twitter.”
To curb this, Wright disclosed that he was building technology that will be “very much anti-Twitter.” He alleges the social media site is “just a platform for terrorists to communicate”:
“Twitter makes a lot of money from terrorists,” he said. “Terrorism recruitment has taken off because of Twitter.”
The self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator was a prolific tweeter until he quit the platform earlier this year.
