Craig Wright’s legal attempt to obtain more than insignificant damages from a libel lawsuit brought against bitcoiner and podcaster Peter McCormack over Wright’s assertion that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, has failed.The London Court of Appeal in London unanimously decided on Wednesday that giving Wright only 1 British pound ($1.29) in compensation was appropriate given the false claims Wright made.
In an earlier case, High Court Judge Martin Chamberlain was “clearly right to treat Dr Wright’s lies and deception as ‘disreputable facts that are properly before the court’,” Lord Justice Mark Warby said in a ruling dated July 26. “Where the libel was an accusation of dishonesty, the dishonest conduct of the litigation was relevant for that purpose.”
Wright said in a statement that he was “disappointed that the Court of Appeal has not given due recognition to the damage caused to me by orchestrated online vitriol” which he said had a “severe impact on me and my wellbeing.”
Following the ruling, McCormack tweeted, “we must continue with our support for others caught up in this, including our brother Hodlonaut,” making reference to another Twitter user who Wright had sued for libel.Further inquiries for comment from his attorneys were not immediately answered.In a ruling issued in October 2021, Chamberlain determined that McCormack had failed to support claims that Wright was a fraud.Although McCormack was later sentenced to pay about 900,000 pounds in legal fees, the judge only gave Wright minimal damages since he had presented fraudulent evidence.
Judges in a different U.K. lawsuit decided on Tuesday that Wright must provide 400,000 pounds as collateral for legal fees in order to pursue his claim that Kraken and Coinbase, two crypto exchanges, are infringing on his intellectual property by permitting trade in bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH).The question of whether Wright violated the court’s order in a $143 million dispute with his former business partner Ira Kleiman will be decided by a Florida court later on Wednesday. Wright has refuted the accusations.