UK Judge Freezes Craig Wright Assets to Prevent Him Evading Court Costs

• Judge James Mellor ordered a worldwide freeze on 6 million British pounds of Craig Wright’s assets.

• In a court case brought by COPA, Mellor found earlier this month that Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin.

• The judge ruled there was a risk Wright would move his assets offshore to avoid paying costs related to the case.

A U.K. judge imposed a worldwide freezing order on 6 million British pounds ($7.6 million) of Craig Wright’s assets to prevent him moving them offshore and evading costs arising from a court case that found he was not, as he’d claimed, Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

In a March 14 decision, Judge James Mellor, who heard the case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), also found Wright didn’t author the Bitcoin white paper nor the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. Shortly after that, Wright notified Companies House, the U.K.’s register of companies, that shares in his RCJBR Holding company had been transferred to DeMorgan, a company organized under the laws of Singapore.

According to a judgment dated Wednesday and posted on the website of the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund, COPA’s costs amount to about 6.7 million pounds.

“Understandably, that gave rise to serious concerns on COPA’s part that Dr Wright was implementing measures to seek to evade the costs consequences of his loss at trial,” Mellor wrote in the judgment, referring to the share transfer.

“Dr Wright has a history of default in relation to orders for the payment of money,” Mellor wrote, before detailing some examples. ” … COPA has a very powerful claim to be awarded a very substantial sum in costs … I consider there is a very real risk of dissipation.”