On March 23, Wright filed his objection with the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida in an ongoing case brought by Ira Kleiman, brother of the late David Kleiman who was a former business partner of Craig Wright.
Craig Wright has objected to a court order dismissing his attorney-client privilege in an ongoing legal battle over a fortune in bitcoin (BTC).
Wright said the order «erroneously disregarded the attorney-client relationship» between the defendant (Wright) and his attorney, based on «preconceived conclusions of the defendant’s character.»
The case hinges upon whether Wright can prove his ownership of 1.1 million bitcoin (worth around $7.5 billion) held in the so called «Tulip Trust» – a massive encrypted trove allegedly mined with Kleiman. The Kleiman estate is suing Wright for half the bitcoin as well as intellectual property.
After a mysterious «bonded courier» failed to arrive with the keys early in 2020, Wright told the court he is unable to prove his access to the trust due to attorney-client privilege.
Earlier this month, presiding District Magistrate Bruce Reinhart dismissed Wright’s argument and apparently questioned the lawyer’s existence.
According to a March 9 filing, Wright had presented a declaration stating: “I am lawyer sic and obtained my bachelor of law degree in 2007 from Moi University in Kenya.” Reinhart said he also introduced «a printout of a LinkedIn profile that reflects Mr. Mayaka having a Bachelor of Laws degree from Moi University,» and asserted that Mayaka is counsel to the trust.
“I decline to rely on this kind of document, which could easily have been generated by anyone with word processing software and a pen”, Reinhart said.
The judge found last summer that Wright had argued in bad faith, committed perjury and admitted false evidence during the case.
According to Wright, the latest order «improperly relied on prior conclusions about the defendant that were unrelated to the existence of an attorney-client relationship and, in so doing, ignored the fundamental and bedrock principle of our legal system.»
Wright has notoriously said he is the inventor of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, but has yet to provide conclusive evidence to support the claim.
Cross-Border Payment Portal Checkout.com Is Latest to Join Libra Association
Checkout.com, an online payment processor, has become the newest member of the Libra Association.The company revealed Tuesday it would join the Libra Association in developing its series of stablecoins. Libra was announced last year as an effort to create a single global currency that could expand financial services to anyone who had a smartphone and an internet connection, though some of these ambitions have since been scaled back.
Backed by Insight Partners, DST Global, Singapore’s sovereign Wealth Fund, Blossom Capital and Endeavor Catalyst in a fundraising round last year, the company focuses on cross border payments, one area Libra originally hoped to reduce friction when first announced last year, according to Forbes.
«Everything we do is to improve our merchants’ businesses by helping to optimize their payments function and drive operational efficiencies,» CEO Guillaume Pousaz wrote in a blog post. «This allows them to serve more customers, in more geographies, gaining the most value out of their transactions.»
The group had already been interested in how blockchain tools could improve the way transactions are processed worldwide, he wrote. However, he said a strong regulatory framework is necessary to ensure a «secure and stable payments infrastructure,» one which would aid in adoption.
The Libra Association shares this view, he wrote.
Pousaz also pointed to financial inclusion, one of the stated goals of the Libra Association, as another area in which his company hopes to help.
«It is obvious to me and the wider Checkout.com team that we want to be part of this effort and can contribute to this endeavor by bringing our unparalleled payments engineering expertise,» Pousaz said.
In a statement, Libra Association head of policy and communications Dante Disparte welcomed the company to the organization.
The news comes a week after the global nonprofit Heifer International announced it had also joined, and makes Libra the 24th member of the organization.
Libra was originally announced with 28 starting members, although several withdrew before the organization was formally chartered due to regulatory concerns and pressure. Vodafone also withdrew earlier this year to focus on its own native digital payment system, M-Pesa.
Since then, however, Libra has added a few new members and revised its white paper in an effort to address concerns by global regulators about its original stablecoin vision.
