In the USA, a court is to decide on a Bitcoin fortune currently worth 68 billion US dollars.
A trial has begun in Miami before a civil court to decide on the ownership of a large stash of Bitcoin. At the same time, the trial between Australian Craig Wright and US-American Ira Kleinman could provide insights into who is behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto – the inventor of Bitcoin.
The background to the case is an alleged business relationship between Wright and Kleinman’s late brother David, Yahoo News reports. David Kleinman and Craig Wright are said to have been partners and to have mined Bitcoin together until Kleinman’s death in 2013. The dispute is over who owns a total of 1.1 million Bitcoin, currently worth over $68 billion.
Ira Kleiman’s team laid out a timeline from 2008 until today and showed a number of emails and statements in which Craig Wright describes Dave Kleiman as a business partner with whom he mind bitcoin.
– Carolina Bolado (@CarolinaBolado) November 1, 2021
Wright claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto and that David Kleinman was not his partner – which the latter’s brother Ira denies. Until Kleinman’s death, Wright allegedly referred to him as his partner in email and correspondence. Ten jurors are to decide what to do with the Bitcoins.
Wright denies partnership with Kleinman after his death
According to Ira Kleinman’s lawyers, Wright is said to have started changing the two’s shared history only after David Kleinman’s death. Wright is quoted as saying that Kleinman had never been his partner – and that he hated the concept of a partnership.
Wright’s defence is that there was no written agreement between David Kleinman and Wright. Furthermore, Wright is autistic, which is why it is sometimes difficult to communicate with him. Therefore, the two allegedly had a different idea of the term partnership. However, Wright was only diagnosed with autism in 2018 – and apparently over the phone by a doctor who had never met him in person.
Did you know…that memes were used by the small blockers as a tactical weapon during the Blocksize War? They played an important role to discredit and humiliate the large blockers especially when some of them began claiming Craig Wright was SN. pic.twitter.com/zEYmeZqGtH
– Wicked 丰mart ₿itcoin ∞/21M (@w_s_bitcoin) November 3, 2021
There is doubt as to whether Craig and/or Kleinman are actually behind Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright has not provided proof that the Bitcoin stash attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto belongs to him. Cryptographic proof of ownership is also in doubt. If Wright is indeed unable to access the contents of the wallets, Ira Kleinman would also have no way of getting his hands on a share to which his family might be entitled.
