in a New development In relation to the old case Kleiman v. Wright of the cryptocurrency industry, Ira Kleiman’s appeal against self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator Craig Wright was denied earlier this Thursday.
The decision has refocused attention on the ongoing issue of W&K ownership through the Wright wives’ court cases.
The basis of rejection
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court ruled against granting a new trial, stating that deference to the district court was particularly appropriate when a new trial was denied, and the jury’s verdict remains unchanged. This is especially significant when considering whether the comments or misconduct seriously affected the jury’s calm and impartial evaluation of the case.
During the trial, the district court granted a motion to limit evidence about Ira Kleiman’s relationship with his brother, David Kleiman.
The intent was to avoid undue bias, as there was concern that the jury would decide based on Ira Kleiman’s relationship with his late brother.
Despite this, there were accusations that Wright’s attorney knowingly violated this order by revealing details about the sibling relationship.
The State pushed for a new trial based on these alleged violations. However, the district court found that these alleged violations were not so prejudicial as to warrant a new trial.
The court’s ruling indicated that the outcome of the trial was unlikely to have been significantly influenced by the alleged violations.
The details of the initial failure
In April 2022, the estate of the late computer scientist appealed a Florida court’s decision favoring Craig Wright.
The crux of the matter revolves around intellectual property rights related to Bitcoin and a huge sum of the cryptocurrency, now valued in billions. David Kleiman’s estate received $143 million, but was denied his most valuable Bitcoin holdings.
Ira Kleiman filed this lawsuit in 2018, representing the estate, alleging that the Bitcoin in question was worth more than $10 billion.
Fast forward to today, the 1.1 million bitcoins involved are valued at over $47 billion. The crux of the disagreement arises from who mined these Bitcoins. Wright claims that he is the infamous Satoshi Nakamoto, a claim that continues to be disputed within the industry.
