Following his ruling at the end of trial that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto and not the author of the Bitcoin White Paper, today, Mr Justice Mellor has handed down his written judgment in the COPA v Wright trial. Across its 1736 paragraphs, the judgment forensically demolishes Wright’s fraudulent claims, finding every aspect of his claimed identity to be a lie. Notably, Mr Justice Mellor finds that:

  • Wright’s evidence was “at best questionable or of very dubious relevance or entirely circumstantial and at worst, fabricated and/or based on documents I am satisfied have been forged on a grand scale by Dr Wright”.
  • Wright was personally responsible for the creation of each of the forgeries that COPA alleged.
  • Wright failed to understand basic aspects of Bitcoin technology.
  • And that Wright, “is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. In both his written evidence and in days of oral evidence under cross-examination, I am entirely satisfied that Dr Wright lied to the Court extensively and repeatedly….”

Justice Mellor concluded:

“Dr Wright’s attempts to prove he was/is Satoshi Nakamoto represent a most serious abuse of this Court’s process… It is clear that Dr Wright engaged in the deliberate production of false documents to support false claims and use the Courts as a vehicle for fraud. Despite acknowledging in this Trial that a few documents were inauthentic (generally blamed on others), he steadfastly refused to acknowledge any of the forged documents. Instead, he lied repeatedly and extensively in his attempts to deflect the allegations of forgery”.

A COPA spokesperson said, “This decision is a watershed moment for the open-source community and even more importantly, a definitive win for the truth. Developers can now continue their important work maintaining, iterating on, and improving the Bitcoin network without risking their personal livelihoods or fearing costly and time-consuming litigation from Craig Wright.”

The spokesperson added, “Today’s ruling is the result of a concerted and united effort across the entire open source community - from developers, to those who selflessly contributed to funding this important case, to all members of the COPA alliance - and we want to thank them all for their time, dedication and support. Justice has been served today for the entire community.”

The full judgment is available at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/copa-v-wright/