Did I hear that right? 20 surprises from a Miami courtroom

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The first two weeks of the Kleiman vs Wright trial have been intense. So many words, so many claims and counterclaims. From four and half thousand miles away, in London, here’s some of what I think I heard—but please don’t quote me:

1. When being asked to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth etc., Dr. Craig Wright inserts “to God” in the deity-free version he was asked to repeat.

2. Craig’s attorney confidently introduces the key person on her side’s witness list: “Dr. Wright will call Dr. Craig Steven Wright …Dr. Wright is the inventor of Bitcoin.”

3. Self-styled crypto expert Andreas Antonopoulos says in court that there’s no name for a 77 digit number. Craig says, out of court, that he’s wrong. The internet says that the smallest 77-digit number is a 1 followed by 76 zeros and it’s called ten quattuorvigintillion.

4. The plaintiff, Ira Kleiman sent himself birthday emails from his late brother’s email account.

5. Craig was appointed by his wife Lynn as the legal agent and representative of W&K in a lawsuit in which W&K was being sued by …Craig.

6. Ira stood out by being the only man in court wearing a tan suit, according to Kurt Wuckert Jr. But he was otherwise “a nothing person” with “nothing to glean except he was the only guy in a light-coloured suit.”

7. Dave Kleiman’s business partner, Patrick Paige, used to call him Dave Mississippi because he had so many qualifications that let him add letters after his name.

8. Dave Kleiman used to carry a “military grade thumb drive” with him at all times. Yes, apparently such things do exist—and would certainly appear worth stealing if found lying around.

9. Ira Kleiman had his colon removed, aged 23. It means he can’t sit down for long periods and was why he missed court on the second day, according to his attorneys.

10. Jamie Wilson, who worked for Craig over a few years, says he witnessed him going from “a hoodie guy in a Subaru to a suit guy with a Rolex” which was “not agreeable” to Wilson.

11. Ira Kleiman has used at least 30 oddly-named email addresses. Some mention his brother in their name and there was even one called “wrightkleiman”.

12. Dave and Craig used to send each other cookie recipes. (Otherwise known as Greaseproof Papers?)

13. Kurt claims that the first time he saw Craig, in 2017, is the only time Craig has been seen in jeans.

14. For some unexplained reason, the deposition by Ramona Watts (Craig’s wife), instead of being shown on video, was read out by two actors—which was “a bit weird,” according to Kurt.

15. Kurt: Craig is “perhaps the most difficult person ever to examine” because of his “extreme specificity” (objecting to any hint of vagueness or inaccuracy in the questions).

16. Craig is asked whether he’s worth more than “the nation of Rwanda.” Craig: I’ve been there.

17. Craig has a black credit card which lets him spend up to $2 million.

18. Blockchain expert Gavin Andresen says Satoshi’s early Bitcoin code was very “academic.” Hmm… so it might have been written by someone who’d done a lot of studying, maybe someone who likes to pile up academic qualifications?

19. Who said that Ira Kleiman is like Milton from Office Space?

20. Kurt: This is “the largest private lawsuit in the history of the universe – maybe.”

Like a daytime soap, there are fresh episodes of this enthralling drama every day. And like a successful Netflix series, a second season has already been commissioned—and will start after only a four-day break. Stay tuned.

CoinGeek features Kurt Wuckert Jr. in recap coverage which will be livestreamed daily at 6:30 p.m. EST on our YouTube Channel.

Check out all of the CoinGeek special reports on the Kleiman v Wright YouTube playlist.