Barely into the second week of Kleiman v Wright and plaintiff’s attorney Vel Freedman had the dubious distinction of being corrected numerous times throughout the course of his questioning of defendant Craig Wright. The rephrasing of questions was not requested by the defense lawyers or Judge Beth Bloom. Instead, Wright himself made sure the questioning was more suited to his line of answering by telling Vel and the courtroom when a question with inaccurate information was asked. Sort of like the old computer information analogy “garbage in, garbage out”. These courtroom antics caused a few laughs by observers and jurors during the sparring match between Craig and Vel. What began as a simple case of the student correcting the teacher soon progressed and started stretching the patience of Bloom.
Craig may have come across today as a bit of a know-it-all, and he is. After all, he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin and author of the Bitcoin white paper. At least that’s what he would have everyone believe and the crux of his defense. On the other hand, Ira Kleiman would have everyone believe that Craig is not Satoshi Nakamoto, at least not by himself. Ira and his army of young hotshot lawyers intend to prove his late brother, Dave Kleiman, is at least one-half of the Nakamoto partnership. Proving that is worth an estimated 1.1 million Bitcoin valued at nearly $69 billion.
There were a few notable periods of questioning but no real bombshells that dropped during the testimony by Craig that lasted the entire day. At one point Craig began sobbing and stated “Dave was my best friend”. Craig described how he ultimately wanted Dave to be remembered for doing something great and exaggerated Dave’s role to the family so they would appreciate him. Saying that aloud gave Freedman the opportunity to take a jab at Craig noting that he lied to the family, which Craig confirmed. It is well known by his peers, friends and family that Wright was obsessed with his work to the point of sacrificing his marriage at the time to Lynne. Craig went to his “best friend” Dave because Lynne didn’t want him to move forward with Bitcoin. Dave was his only ally and supported Craig throughout. When asked, he exclaimed, “Dave was a valuable resource and best friend.”
Large amounts of information including page after page of emails and depositions were once again discussed for the jury. Craig would turn towards and look at the jury making a connection before providing a response to Vel’s questions. The line of questioning went into several topics including Bitcoin testnet coins which are used in a development environment to avoid loss of real coins should something go wrong. Vel wanted to know why Craig would provide worthless coins to Dave. Craig’s response was direct and quite sensible. He explained the coins have a tremendous amount of value for the data they hold. Vel immediately moved on.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) interview of Craig, which is now public, continues circulating and Freedman asked him to confirm the truth about its contents as well as his signature on it. Craig pounded off once again that the document is fake, and the signature is a forgery, and it will all be proven in the defense case. This brings up the claims that over time, Craig and his businesses were hacked. These alleged conspiracies against him may appear to be convenient but not when you take into consideration that Wright invented Bitcoin and those people working in his company at the time were well aware he was Satoshi Nakamoto. Forensic experts are slated to testify on the matter and the defense expects that testimony will uphold these claims.
Lastly, another small standout item from the day. This comes from Kurt Wurkert Jr. who was surprised by the number of people in Australia that actually knew Craig as Satoshi. All of his business organizations and peers there knew about Craig’s use of the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym. Follow Kurt on his daily livestreams here:
