In his latest testimony, Craig Wright still maintains no wrongdoing to David Kleiman and wants the court to speed up its judgment.
The Craig Wright versus David Kleiman civil suit concluded its fourth testimony day on Monday, with Wright’s attorneys filing a motion for judgment. In addition, the legal team is enjoining presiding judge Beth Bloom to administer an early verdict on six counts and on damages. If this happens, then Wright would no doubt be ending this suit in his favor.
Craig Wright and David Kleiman were former best friends and business partners who fell out shortly before the latter’s death in April 2013. The bone of contention is Wright’s claim that he wrote the popular Bitcoin white paper all by himself and merely tapped Kleiman to assist in cleaning it up. However, David’s brother Ira, as well as the legal team representing the deceased Kleiman’s estate, differ on Wright’s assertion.
The Kleiman team alleges that David and Wright collaborated to “invent” Bitcoin. They also say that both partners mined over 1.1 million tokens worth more than $60 billion today. Furthermore, the plaintiff also accuses Wright of converting David Kleiman’s stake in intellectual property rights and profits. They claim Wright achieved this through several unscrupulous practices in the wake of Kleiman’s death.
The Wright vs Kleiman Suit
Kleiman’s lawyers contend that Wright and Kleiman were partners in W&K Info Defense Research, LLC, which they used for their BTC activities. However, Wright states that was not the case. Instead, the Australian computer scientist suggested that it was his ex-wife Lynn Wright that partnered with Kleiman on the initiative. In addition, Wright’s defense team said that Kleiman’s side has not provided proper evidence that suggests equal participation on the Bitcoin white paper.
Wright took the stand during the legal hearing where he came under intense cross-examination from Ira Kleinman’s attorney Devin Freedman. Here Wright made a series of allegations, including how he offered Ira $12 million to become a director at one of his companies. However, Kleiman declined a $300,000-a-month offer for 30 hours of work, according to Wright. Furthermore, Wright questioned Ira Kleiman’s intelligence in turning down the offer. Wright stated that Kleiman was looking to gain substantially from Wright’s own company without putting in any work. In his own words, Ira was looking to:
“…strip it, loot it, take it, basically eviscerate it so he could sit there drinking mai tais and not actually working.”
Freedman countered by presenting documents that seemed to suggest that Wright orchestrated shenanigans to alienate and shut out Ira Kleiman. What followed was a series of claims and counterclaims, where Wright maintained that he was not in the wrong. Despite growing evidence suggesting otherwise, Wright maintained his position at the stand and refused to yield.
Judge Bloom now has several things to mull over. These include a series of requests by the plaintiff, and counterclaims by the defendants.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
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