Tether is pulling its support for Peter McCormack in Craig Wright’s libel suit, CoinGeek has learned. Until now, Tether had been supporting McCormack’s defense as he was being sued by Wright for claiming that he is a fraud in claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin. McCormack’s side is now reportedly trying to settle the case.
The timing of this sudden U-turn by Tether is telling for a couple of reasons.
McCormack was trying his best to have the case struck out before evidential discovery could begin in the case. Because of the subject of the lawsuit, discovery was expected to produce evidence—from either side—that Wright was or was not Satoshi Nakamoto. That attempt by McCormack to have his strike-out application heard before discovery was resolutely rejected by the Court, who ordered McCormack to pay Wright £18,500 in costs. As a result, discovery proceeded as planned beginning in September and had recently concluded.
It is at this point, apparently, that McCormack’s funders suddenly lost their appetite for defending McCormack’s incendiary claims. It’s a sudden about-face for Tether, who have seemed happy to follow McCormack into hell over the lawsuit:
Litigation can be drawn-out and expensive, but we are committed to the long game. We admire Peter’s conviction and are humbled to support his defence against what we see as frivolous and vexatious litigation. 3/3
— Stuart Hoegner (@bitcoinlawyer) November 8, 2019
That Tether was apparently not even willing to wait until November to see if McCormack’s attempt to get the case thrown out would be accepted also indicates that whatever evidence Tether has seen is overwhelming and likely fatal to their defense.
One has to wonder what McCormack and Tether saw in discovery that sapped all enthusiasm for standing by McCormack’s accusations, but the obvious answer is that they now know they can no longer claim that Craig Wright is a fraud by claiming to have invented Bitcoin. It is very clear from these actions that Tether has confirmed Craig is Satoshi.
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