Craig Wright Must Face Trial Over Alleged $11B Bitcoin Fortune as Request for Summary Judgment Denied

The District Court for the Southern District of Florida has denied Craig Wright’s request for summary judgment in a case that involves claims over ownership of about 1.1 million bitcoin (worth over $11 billion). 

In an order signed on Monday, Judge Beth Bloom at the Florida court denied Wright’s motion seeking summary judgment that would have prevented the matter from proceeding to a full trial. 

• The case, first brought in 2018,  involves the plaintiff Ira Kleiman’s argument on behalf of the estate of his late brother David, that half of Wright’s bitcoin worth and intellectual property belongs to Kleiman. The plaintiff has argued that the bitcoin in question was also mined together by Wright and Kleiman.
  
• Wright’s request for summary judgment was comprised of six claims including statute of limitations, the plaintiff’s inability to prove the existence of an oral partnership and the court’s lack of subject matter jurisdiction. 
  
• In the past, Wright has claimed that he was the inventor of bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, an assertion many in the crypto world have disputed due to a lack of corroborating evidence.
  
• According to an order issued by the Florida court on Sept. 4, the trial involving Wright’s bitcoin fortune has now been moved to Jan. 4, 2021.