Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos confirmed that he will testify in the Kleiman family case against the self-proclaimed creator of the first cryptocurrency, Craig Wright. His appearance in court is expected in April 2021.
«The federal court has affirmed my status as an expert witness in this case, rejecting the defense’s motion to exclude me and other experts», he wrote.
The federal court in Kleiman vs Wright has affirmed my status as an expert witness in the the case, rejecting the «Daubert» motions by the defense that tried to exclude me and other experts.
I will be testifying at trial (sch. for April 2021), as an expert witness.
— Andreas ☮ 🌈 ⚛ ⚖ 🌐 📡 📖 📹 🔑 🛩 (@aantonop) November 16, 2020
Documents in the case show that Wright’s lawyers attempted to strike from the witness list and other invited experts, including cryptography expert Matthew Edman and economist Stefan Bedeker.
Ira Kleiman vs Craig Wright by ForkLog on Scribd
The court partially granted the defense’s motion. It noted that the testimony Antonopoulos planned to present regarding messages sent by Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto must be relevant to the case.
«Merely reading messages or emails on a public forum does not constitute an expert opinion. The jury in this matter will not require expert assistance», the document states.
The court ordered Antonopoulos not to disclose details of the message «Craig is a liar and a fraud», sent from one of the addresses attributed to Wright in May 2020. The court agreed with the defense’s arguments that this amounted to an attempt to influence jurors’ views of Wright.
The hearing in this case is scheduled for January 4, 2021. The Southern District of Florida denied Wright’s motion for expedited proceedings.
Profanity, technical nonsense and tears: how Craig Wright described his shame over Bitcoin and his willingness to part with 1 million BTC
As reported in February 2018, Ira Kleiman, the brother of the late computer forensics expert and mathematician Dave Kleiman, filed suit against Craig Wright. The plaintiff accused the Australian programmer of misappropriating 1.1 million BTC, allegedly belonging to Dave Kleiman.
At that time, WizSec researchers found that the Bitcoin addresses cited in the suit had never belonged to Kleiman or Wright.
Subscribe to ForkLog’s news on Twitter!