The Florida District Court hearing the case between Dr. Craig Wright and the family of the late Dave Kleiman has decided to keep documents relating to “Tulip Trust III” under seal, pending further developments.
Dr. Wright: ‘I have complied’
Earlier today, Dr. Wright released the following statement exclusively to CoinGeek.com about the speculation surrounding the upcoming hearing schedule for Monday, February 3rd in South Florida:
I have complied with the legal directives that have been asked of me concerning the public keys in this case. The private keys were never a part of this and the court have accepted that the public keys can, at this time, be held confidentially and viewed only by those involved in the case.
In other words, while new information has recently become available, only participants in the case will get to see the contents. The public will be left once again to speculate and opine on what they might be. One thing seems pretty obvious though, if the judge thinks there is something important enough to seal, it is highly unlikely that he does not think that Craig owns the coins.
Much anticipation surrounds the mysterious “Tulip Trusts,” which many understand to contain vital information on—or even access to—over a million Bitcoins. Who owns, or should own, these Bitcoins is the matter in dispute. In a lengthy ruling late in 2019, Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart expressed doubts the initial Tulip Trust was even real.
You can read a more in-depth background of the court case, Dave Kleiman and get more information about the Tulip Trust here.
Earlier in the Kleiman v Wright case, the judge ordered Dr. Wright to produce information on how many Bitcoins he mined before December 31, 2011. Wright claimed he did not have full access to that information, but that more would be revealed in January 2020.
Skeptics scoffed at Wright’s claims, saying it was another diversionary tactic to avoid providing any evidence Wright was Satoshi Nakamoto. However information has trickled out since then to suggest Wright did indeed receive something of interest in early January.
Tulip Trust III
On January 9, court transcripts revealed Wright had produced a third Tulip Trust document, which the court referred to as “Tulip Trust III“. The record noted this document was not produced under the previous court order to produce all documents related to the blind Tulip Trust.
“Plaintiffs received this document for the first time on January 6, 2020, amongst a production of 428 other documents, without any explanation as to its late disclosure, or even an email pointing out this document had been produced.”
Dr. Wright had marked the documents as “Confidential”. The plaintiffs requested Wright be given 10 days to propose redactions, but felt the Tulip Trust III documents shouldn’t be sealed in their entirety.
There’s a simple explanation as to why Wright’s team might have produced the documents so late—because they didn’t have them before January 1. This date has captured the public’s imagination, as it was listed in the leaked email between Wright and Dave Kleiman as the date 1.1 million Bitcoins would be returned to Wright.
The document known as “Tulip Trust II” was a 2014 Seychelles-registered legal trust, also with unknown contents. Tulip Trust II first came to light in late 2019 as part of the court’s discovery proceedings.
Dr. Wright stated in his testimony to the court: “I’ve called lots of things Tulip Trust.”
However, it’s important to remember the trust documents never specified what information Wright would receive, and in what format. Superficial observers guessed it would be Satoshi’s private keys, but this was always just an assumption—as was the notion Dr. Wright would immediately start “moving Bitcoins” at the start of 2020. The reality is likely far more complicated than that, with plans structured years ago in a way to secure the assets and protect anyone else who might be involved.
Kleiman and backers ‘will never see a cent’ of Satoshi’s Bitcoins
Dr. Wright also stated later in a video interview with Cointelegraph that he “was smart enough” to remove early Bitcoins from his ownership and control. His rationale was that, if he ever had direct access to the coins, he may be forced to hand them over someday.
Some outlets erroneously suggested Dr. Wright would then produce a list of private and public keys to Satoshi Nakamoto’s early-mined Bitcoins for the court. This notion is ridiculous, as revealing private keys in this manner would be equivalent to handing over Satoshi’s entire Bitcoin fortune.
Wright has been scathing in his remarks about Ira Kleiman, Dave’s brother by adoption. In an editorial posted on January 3, 2020, he described Ira Kleiman as “one of the greediest people I have ever met” and “an idiot and a lowlife”, accusing him of attacking his companies, forging documents, conspiring with BTC Core personnel, and attempting to steal his life’s work.
“Those funding him will never see a cent from the strategy he wants and they will learn the truth the hard way,” Wright wrote.
One thing everyone needs to realize is it is very unlikely that any of the Satoshi Coins will move until the Kleiman vs. Wright case is over as they are the subject matter of the case and moving them would be not only stupid but possibly illegal. Keep that in mind when the fake crypto media try to spin.
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