Depending on who you believe, computer scientist Craig Wright is either the mysterious Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto — one of the most influential men of the modern age and the 15th wealthiest person in the world — or a crafty Aussie who is trying to trick the world and cheat the estate of a dead man.
Or both.
In a court case now unfolding in West Palm Beach, Fla., Ira Kleiman, the brother of the late computer-security specialist David Kleiman, maintains that his brother and Wright developed the original digital currency credited to the Nakamoto pseudonym.
Ira claims that, as a result, he is entitled to half of Wright’s crypto trove: some $64 billion in Bitcoin (by Friday’s valuation).
If Wright is Satoshi, as he claims on his private Instagram page (which contains just one post), then he holds 1.1 million Bitcoin and is worth tens of billions of dollars.
“The theory of the case is that a partnership was formed to create and mine a significant amount of Bitcoin under the name Satoshi Nakamoto,” Vel Freedman, the attorney representing Ira Kleiman, told The Post. “Evidence [in the form of emails] shows that Craig and Dave agreed to keep their partnership a secret. Nobody knew about it until Craig began telling [the Kleiman] family some details after Dave passed away [in 2013] and Craig decided to keep the fortune for himself.”
“We believe the court will find there’s nothing to indicate or record that they were in a partnership,” said Andrés Rivero, a lawyer for Wright.
Kleiman, a paraplegic, died under terrible conditions. When he was discovered, his body had begun to decompose, open bottles of alcohol were scattered around and, according to the complaint, there was “a loaded handgun next to him. A bullet hole in his mattress was found. The exact details surrounding his death remain…
