Self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright faces perjury investigation: report

Self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright was reportedly referred to U.K. prosecutors for alleged perjury after a judge found he lied “extensively and repeatedly” about his claim.

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright who claimed to have invented Bitcoin (BTC) was referred to British prosecutors for alleged perjury by a judge at London’s High Court, Reuters has learned. The report says the judge found that Wright had lied “extensively and repeatedly” to support his false claims of creating the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Wright has long asserted that he authored the 2008 whitepaper under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. However, in March, Judge James Mellor ruled that the evidence proving Wright was not Satoshi was “overwhelming,” after the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) initiated a legal battle to prevent Wright from suing Bitcoin developers.

In a written ruling, Judge Mellor said he was referring the case to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider charging Wright with perjury for lying under oath during the trial, emphasizing the seriousness of Wright’s actions.

“If Wright’s conduct did not warrant a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service, it is difficult to envisage a case which would.”

Judge James Mellor

The judge further added that he has “no doubt that I should refer the relevant papers in this case to the CPS for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr. Wright for his wholesale perjury and forgery of documents and/or whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from wherever he now is.”

In mid-March, just the day after the High Court’s March ruled that Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, his billionaire backer, Calvin Ayre, revealed on X that he would be leaving the platform to “take off on an adventure” that he, according to his own words, has been “planning for the last year.”