$66B Bitcoin Dispute Heats Up: Is Craig Wright Really Satoshi?

Miami courtroom just witnessed drama that’d make reality TV jealous. The Kleiman v. Wright trial – centered on who really owns 1.1M BTC (now worth ~$66B) – hit a turning point this week with allegations of witness intimidation and document forgery claims.

The Setup

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist, claims he’s Satoshi Nakamoto (the mysterious Bitcoin creator). David Kleiman’s estate says Dave was Wright’s partner in Bitcoin’s invention and mining. Dave died in 2013, but his brother Ira is now suing Wright for allegedly stealing billions in BTC and intellectual property.

The kicker? Nobody disputes they were friends and colleagues. Everything hinges on whether they were actually business partners.

Evidence Bomb: Documents Don’t Add Up

Expert witness Matthew Edman dropped a bombshell – he identified 10 forged documents. Here’s the smoking gun:

• Documents allegedly created in 2011-2013 had timestamps showing 2014 creation dates
• One claimed a Bitmessage from 2012, but Bitmessage didn’t exist publicly until months later
• Another used a Microsoft font that didn’t exist when the doc was supposedly written

This is the kind of forensic evidence that makes or breaks cases.

Tension Rising

Things got spicy when Wright posted on Slack that “experts” giving “misleading testimony” can be sued. Plaintiffs’ attorneys immediately cried foul – witness intimidation. Judge shut it down but later found Wright had also posted about planning to sue a former executive who testified against him.

Defense Counterattack

Wright’s team is now arguing Dave Kleiman wasn’t skilled enough to help develop Bitcoin – claiming he couldn’t even code C++. But here’s the catch: their own expert admitted he only reviewed a resume provided by Wright himself and couldn’t rule out that Kleiman taught himself or contributed in other ways.

Meanwhile, Wright’s ex-wife testified she recalled him writing papers about digital money, but not specifically Bitcoin. His uncle claimed Wright never once mentioned Dave Kleiman’s involvement during Bitcoin development, only learning the name later.

The Real Question

1.1M BTC worth $66B is now on the table. If Kleiman’s estate wins, Wright could owe over $11 billion in damages plus attorney fees and punitive damages. The Bitcoin has appreciated ~6x since the lawsuit was filed in 2018.

This case is basically the legal equivalent of proving who actually invented the internet – and the stakes are astronomical.