Self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor sentenced for contempt of court after launching $1.2 trillion lawsuit

What just happened? Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who has repeatedly made the false claim that he is Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, has been found to be in contempt of court and handed a 12-month jail sentence for continuing to sue developers.

Back in 2016, Wright announced that he was the pseudonymous Satoshi and said he could prove it. That claim has been disputed ever since, but Wright continues to argue that he really is the mysterious creator and has launched legal battles against those who say otherwise.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) forced a trial earlier this year aiming to stop Wright from suing more people.

The high court in London – Wright lives in the UK – found in favor of COPA. The judge said during the trial that Wright had lied about his role in launching Bitcoin, using clumsy forgeries "on a grand scale" and "technobabble," and that he is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. Wright was ordered to stop taking legal action against Bitcoin developers.

In October, Wright ignored this court order and launched a legal case claiming he was owed $1.2 trillion for the intellectual property rights related to Bitcoin. He also repeated his claim that he is Satoshi.

The judge said the case is a "flagrant breach" of the original court order. For the five counts of contempt of court, Wright has been sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, and must pay £145,000 ($181,308) in costs within two weeks. His $1.2 trillion claim has also been dismissed.

Wright had been ordered to appear in court in person during the hearing, but he refused on the grounds that he could only do so if he was paid £240,000 ($300,000) to cover his costs and lost earnings. He appeared via video call from somewhere in Asia – Wright refused to say where – stating that he intends to appeal the sentence.

COPA counsel Jonathan Hough KC said Wright's legal threats had "terrorized" people, putting "developers and bloggers through […] years of personal hell." He said the latest claims were intended to "cause maximum possible distress."

In May, High Court judge Mr Justice Mellor said that Wright presents himself as an extremely clever person, "however, in my judgment, he is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is."

"In both his written evidence and in days of oral evidence under cross-examination, I am entirely satisfied that Dr Wright lied to the court extensively and repeatedly," the judge said, via The Guardian. "Most of his lies related to the documents he had forged which purported to support his claim. All his lies and forged documents were in support of his biggest lie: his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto."

In October, an HBO documentary claimed Peter Todd, a Canadian developer who was heavily involved in Bitcoin in its early days, was Satoshi Nakamoto. Todd denied the claim and went into hiding for his own safety.

Satoshi is thought to own 1 million bitcoins, worth around $92 billion, which would make him one of the richest people in the world.