Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, who has falsely claimed to be bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, has been sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, by the UK High Court.
The sentence followed his breach of an anti-suit injunction that prohibited him from pursuing legal actions against bitcoin developers.
High Court Justice Mellor called Wright's actions a "flagrant breach" of the court's orders while dismissing Wright's legal arguments as "incoherent in its language and nonsensical in its legal reasoning”.
The court found all five grounds of contempt raised by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) proven beyond reasonable doubt.
In handing down the ruling in Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Dr Craig Steven Wright (Case No: IL-2021-000019), Judge Mellor signed off: “I have found, to the requisite criminal standard of proof, that Dr Wright committed each of the contempts alleged by COPA in their Grounds 1 to 5 inclusive.
“Indeed, in my judgment, there is no doubt whatever that each of these contempts has been proved.”
Wright, now known in crypto circles as the ‘Fake Satoshi’, had sought hundreds of billions of pounds in damages, claiming intellectual property infringement by bitcoin’s community of developers.
His claims, however, were thoroughly struck down, and he was ordered to pay COPA's legal costs, with an interim payment of £144,000 due within 14 days.
Wright, appearing via video from an undisclosed location in Asia, said he intends to appeal.
"I don't agree with the factual statements you have made on the aspects of the law, which I will be appealing," he told the court.