Craig Wright required to produce records of bitcoin ownership in multi-billion dollar Kleiman case

Show me the bitcoin. That's what Craig Wright has been ordered to do by a federal court as part of a lawsuit filed against the computer scientist by the estate of Dave Kleiman, a deceased entrepeneur. 

The Southern District of Florida issued the order on May 3, which would require Wright to produce records of his private bitcoin addresses as of December 2013. 

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It is the latest in the dispute between Wright and Kleiman's estate, which claims Wright misappropriated billions of dollars of bitcoin (1.1 million BTC) through a complicated multi-year partnership with Kleiman earlier this decade. From the Florida court: 

The Plaintiffs ask the Court to order the following additional discovery: (1) make Dr. Wright produce the list of bitcoins owned as of December 31,2013; (2) make Dr. Wright identify all bitcoins he transferred to the blind trust in 2011; (3) makeDr. Wright produce documents related to the blind trust; (4) make Dr. Wright identify, under oath, the identity of the current and past trustees of the blind trust, the beneficiaries of the blind trust, and the manner in which the bitcoins were transferred to the blind trust; and (5) permit further deposition of Dr. Wright with regard to his ownership and control over bitcoins. DE 162 at 5-6. The Court finds that this additional discovery is warranted.

The "sua sponte," or spontaneous, order means that the court is not moved by Wright's argument that he cannot obtain the bitcoin address information, which he claims is controlled by a blind trust. As a result, the court required that, "On or before May 15, 2019, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, Dr. Wright shall produce all transactional records of the blind trust, including but not limited to any records reflecting the transfer of bitcoin into the blind trust in or about 2011. The production shall be accompanied by a sworn declaration of authenticity."

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Mike Dudas is one of the founders of The Block and was the CEO until April 2020 and a board member until April 2021. Prior to starting The Block, Mike was co-founder and CRO of Button, the leading global, mobile performance marketing platform. Mike is a builder of mobile commerce businesses, having worked at Google, Braintree/Venmo and PayPal. Early in his career, Mike worked in corporate M&A and strategy for Disney. Mike earned a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg.