Craig Wright Ordered To Pay Peter McCormack’s Legal Fees, Faces Contempt Of Court Hearing

A judgment made in the U.K. found Wright breached an embargo and must pay McMormack’s legal fees.

A judgment in Peter McCormack’s current case against Craig Wright concluded that Wright must pay the court fees of McCormack on an indemnity basis, amongst other findings.

The conclusion of the trial also sets up an inquiry into Wright for contempt of court, with Justice Chamberlain of the Royal Courts of Justice writing, “I will issue a summons requiring Dr. Wright to attend a directions hearing before a judge nominated by the Judge in Charge of the Media and Communications List, who will give directions for the conduct of contempt proceedings in respect of breach of the embargo.”

This in reference to an embargo on a draft judgment which Wright apparently breached, as he shared details of the judgment prior to the embargo date in the MetaNet Slack (MetaNet is a BSV education company). The judgment reads that “The Court of Appeal has signaled that breaches are likely to result in contempt proceedings.”

While not a particularly good outcome for Wright, McCormack is also being directed to pay approximately $1.1 million (900,000 British pounds) in legal costs, subject to evaluation by a cost judge. He has stated on Twitter that “The stress of the last four years can’t be understated, it has had a significant impact upon me and my family.”

This proceeding follows a previous court trial in the U.K. in which McCormack was sued for calling Wright a “liar” and “fraud” in 2019, which Wright argued caused monetary damages after he had speaking roles canceled.

The court did, in that case, rule in Wright’s favor, but only after pointing out that he submitted false evidence, which in turn led to an awarding of only 1 British pound in nominal damages.

In October of 2022, Wright had lost his defamation trial against pseudonymous Bitcoiner Hodlonaut. The lawsuit involved whether or not the challenging of Wright’s claims that he is Satoshi Nakamoto fulfilled the definition of defamation.

The court found that since Wright could not provide sufficient evidence to prove that he is indeed Satoshi Nakamoto, he must be willing to withstand debate and dissent from people who do not believe him. This conclusion included the order for Wright to pay Hodlonaut’s legal fees of $348,257. 

22 December 2022 16:19