Billion Dollar Bitcoin Lawsuit Continues as Craig Wright Breaks Settlement

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In early September, the high-profile court case Kleiman v. Wright looked as though it was coming to an end as the two parties reached a non-binding settlement. Then on October 30, without much notice, Wright explained that he couldn’t finance the settlement and the agreement was broken. Now the trial will start again and the Kleiman estate will depose Wright’s former chief financial officer, James Wilson on November 8.

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Wright Breaks the Non-Binding Settlement as the Billion Dollar Bitcoin Lawsuit Continues

Australian native Craig Wright, the man who claims to be Bitcoin’s inventor, will be seeing more court proceedings in the near future as the notorious Kleiman v. Wright case is back on. Craig Wright is being sued by Ira Kleiman, the brother of the now-deceased David Kleiman, for allegedly interfering with David’s bitcoin assets and intellectual property after he died. Last September, news.Bitcoin.com reported on how the two parties were seemingly headed toward a settlement as both legal teams came to a non-binding settlement. This happened after the judge ruled the Kleimans were to be awarded 50% of Wright’s alleged BTC holdings and 50% of his blockchain intellectual property (IP). However, the Kleiman estate has filed a new court document which details that “Craig could no longer finance the settlement and was “breaking” the non-binding settlement agreement.” So Roche Freedman LLP wrote in the filing that after a lot of “lost time” the team will be “shifting back into preparing for trial.”

Following the broken settlement, the law firm explained it was in contact with James Wilson, the chief financial officer (CFO) of Craig’s companies in 2012-2013. This period of time is when Dave Kleiman was still alive and Wright alleged that he sold Dave interest in his businesses in exchange for BTC. Although Wright’s legal team, Rivero Mestre LLP, came back five hours after the Kleiman estate requested permission to depose Wilson and informed the plaintiffs they would not consent to the deposition on November 8. Wright’s council said the team would need to consent to a video deposition at a later date.

“Due to the unexpected failure of settlement negotiations, and the soon approaching discovery cutoff, the parties are short on time,” Roche Freedman’s filing notes. “Mr. Wilson’s presence in the United States next week obviates the need for the parties to go through the legal, logistical, and expensive steps of securing a deposition in Australia. And while Craig won’t have been afforded a full 14-days notice, he has received 7-days notice.” The Kleiman estate’s court filing adds:

Importantly the fact that Craig doesn’t have 14-days notice of this deposition is a product of his own conduct. He asked the parties to pause the litigation process and concentrate on amicably resolving this dispute, only to pull his consent with no advance notice, without good cause, and at a time when it simply wasn’t possible to give him the full 14-days notice.

James Wilson and Cryptoloc Technology

According to the Twitter handle ‘Seeking Satoshi,’ James Wilson is a former business associate of Wright’s and co-patent holder. “So the court in Florida would like to have a chat with Jamie Wilson, one time CFO for one of Craig’s dodgy companies and co-patent holder for Cryptoloc. But what does the court want from Jamie?” Seeking Satoshi asked on Twitter. “Do they think Jamie can shed some light on Craig’s financial dealings with Dave? Or do they suspect that Dave was involved in the development of Jamie’s ‘Cryptoloc’ and may be owed some money for his hand in the IP behind it?” The researcher continued:

I doubt the court will uncover much from speaking with Jamie and I don’t think any IP, bitcoin or money will be found that belongs to Dave. At some point, the court will realise there is no Tulip trust and no bitcoin and that Craig has led everyone on a goose chase.

Wilson is also mentioned in a blog post called “From the Bygone Days of Yore — Part 1,” written by Wright in June. Wright stated at the time that he had video link meetings with “Jamie Wilson, Robert Urquhart, and Dave Kleiman” with lawyers present in 2012. Roche Freedman’s motion requests that the court allows them to depose Wilson on November 8 with the defense team present via video-link. According to the court documents, a trial is scheduled to start on March 30, 2020, depending on the proceedings.

What do you think about the Kleiman v. Wright lawsuit involving billions of dollars worth of bitcoin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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