Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist dubbed “Faketoshi” by the community, suffered another significant legal setback this month after a UK court previously deemed him a false Satoshi Nakamoto. The High Court of England and Wales issued a global freezing order against Wright on the 5th, requiring him to compensate cryptocurrency influencer Peter McCormack £1.548 million in lawsuit costs.
According to court documents released on the 5th, this stems from a defamation lawsuit Wright filed against McCormack in 2019. McCormack had accused Wright of being a fake Satoshi Nakamoto on social media and YouTube. While a previous judgment acknowledged that McCormack’s statements damaged Wright’s reputation, Wright was awarded only nominal damages of £1 due to his dishonest conduct, including providing false evidence.
Judge James Mellor of the High Court stated that the defamation lawsuit was part of a series of coordinated falsehoods aimed at establishing Wright as Satoshi Nakamoto, purportedly to gain access to a large amount of bitcoin claimed to belong to Nakamoto. Mellor ordered Wright to pay £1.548 million to McCormack for his legal expenses, emphasizing that the lawsuit was built upon lies supported by a series of forged documents.
The ruling includes directives to disclose assets and execute asset orders in jurisdictions such as Australia, Seychelles, Antigua and Barbuda, and Singapore.
Previously, in March of this year, the UK court had already ordered the global freezing of Wright’s £6 million in assets to prevent him from transferring assets overseas to evade legal costs related to lawsuits.
