LONDON (Reuters) – An Australian computer scientist who claimed he invented bitcoin was on Tuesday referred to British prosecutors for alleged perjury by a judge at London’s High Court, who found he lied “extensively and repeatedly” to support his false claim.
Craig Wright had long claimed to have been the author of a 2008 white paper, the foundational text of bitcoin, published under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”.
But Judge James Mellor ruled in March that the evidence Wright was not Satoshi was “overwhelming”, after a trial in a case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) to stop Wright suing bitcoin developers.
The judge said in a written ruling on Tuesday that he was referring the case to Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider whether Wright should be charged with perjury for lying on oath during the trial.
Mellor said that if Wright’s conduct did not warrant a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service, “it is difficult to envisage a case which would”.
“I have no doubt that I should refer the relevant papers in this case to the CPS for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr Wright for his wholescale perjury and forgery of documents and/or whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from wherever he now is,” the judge said.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)
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