Craig Wright to pay $43 million for illegal seizure of intellectual property

Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin will have to pay an additional $43 million to the company W&K Info Defense Research. That’s what a federal judge in West Palm Beach, Florida, ruled last Wednesday.

W&K Info Defense Research was founded by Wright and his partner David Kleiman about 10 years ago.

According to the court, over this period, Wright illegally seized intellectual property belonging to the joint venture.

Millionaire conviction

Wright, a controversial Australian computer scientist, and Kleiman, an expert in computer forensics, were friends when they founded the company.

However, when Kleiman died, his brother, Ira Kleiman, filed a lawsuit against the “fake Satoshi” on behalf of W&K.

Kleiman’s brother said that Wright had stolen intellectual property related to W&K’s blockchain technology, as well as 1.1 million BTC.

Kleiman said the assets were worth more than $11 billion. At current prices, 1.1 million BTC would be worth approximately $44 billion.

After investigations, in December, Wright was ordered to pay $100 million for illegally taking intellectual property belonging to the joint venture.

However, the jury did not find Wright liable for any other charges, including theft and fraud. Thus, it determined that W&K and Kleiman were not entitled to any of the contested Bitcoin.

It is noteworthy that there was always the probability of pre-judgment interest being added to the initial value. This interest is essentially additional money that a court can award the case based on the interest the judgment would have earned during the period of time that the claimant was entitled to receive it.

Now, as one document Court filing, Judge Beth Bloom ordered him to pay an additional $43 million in pretrial interest for damages to W&K.

In the statement, the company’s lawyers said the verdict “sets a historic precedent in cryptocurrencies and blockchain.”