Craig Wright, the man who claims to be the creator of Bitcoin, is facing a contempt of court proceedings due to his refusal to provide certain information to a judge. According to a ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, Wright has allegedly show prima facie evidence of contemptuous conduct for failing to correctly provide information related to $143 million in disputed cryptocurrency.

The case is being reviewed between Wright and Ira Kleiman, who is claiming rights to Bitcoin he says was mined by his late brother David. Last year, a judge had already passed judgment in favor of Kleiman and his linked company W&K. However, W&K filed a complaint against Wright, saying he had failed to provide essential information required to enforce the payment and requested that the court initiate contempt of court proceedings imposing fines of $250,000 per day.

In response, Reinhart said that based on the record and evidence, there is prima facie proof of contemptuous conduct since Wright had refused to provide some basic information on his spouse and her assets, which was requested in a form filed by W&K. Additionally, Reinhart also said that his claims that the form should be kept confidential to avoid revealing private data was false.

Moreover, Wright has been given until May 18 to show the court why there should be no sanction for the attorney’s aim to keep confidential information. The hearing for this case has been set for July 6 in Palm Beach, Florida, where the facts related to any non-compliance will be considered. The judge will additionally give Wright a chance to make his case as to why he was either unable or legally restricted from providing certain data as requested.

Earlier this year, a similar case was dropped in the U.K. High Court related to Wright revealing details of a judgment due to it not being considered in the public interest. Additionally, in December 2020, he was granted permission to appeal a Norwegian court’s ruling that social media user Magnus Granath, also known as Hodlonaut was entitled to post tweets about Wright calling him a fraud and scammer for his claims to be Satoshi Nakomoto.



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