A juror in the recent Kleiman v Wright trial has revealed details of the jury\u2019s deliberations ahead of the verdict handed down earlier this month. The jury ultimately sided with Wright in six of the seven civil charges brought by Ira Kleiman, the brother of Wright\u2019s former colleague Dave Kleiman.<\/p>\n
Ira alleged that Wright and Dave\u2014who died in April 2013\u2014had collaborated on Bitcoin\u2019s development and on a venture that mined Bitcoin in the years immediately following the technology\u2019s 2009 release. Wright maintained that, while Dave helped him edit the text of the Bitcoin white paper, Dave had no input into the Bitcoin code, nor was there any partnership between the two friends to jointly mine Bitcoin or develop Bitcoin-related technology.<\/p>\n
The jury did find that Wright committed conversion of assets belonging to W&K Info Defense Research LLC\u2014an outfit formed in 2011 by Dave Kleiman, Dr. Craig Wright and his ex-wife Lynn to pursue U.S. military technology contracts\u2014in which Dave held a minority stake. (A separate dispute over ownership of the shares held by the respective parties remains ongoing.)<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Law360 reporter Carolina Bolado published details of an interview with a member of the KvW jury regarding its six days of deliberations following the three-week trial. The unidentified juror said the jury agreed early on that Wright was liable for conversion for transferring W&K\u2019s intellectual property to companies under his control.<\/p>\n
But the juror also revealed that the deliberations might have concluded much sooner were it not for efforts by two jurors to find some evidence that Wright owed Dave a portion of the 1.1m BTC tokens that Satoshi\u2014the pseudonymous identity under which Wright wrote the white paper\u2014is believed to have mined. After finding \u201cno positive connection\u201d linking Dave to any of Wright\u2019s Bitcoin tokens, the juror said the two Kleiman supporters ultimately \u201cagreed that as far as liability towards Bitcoin, there was none.\u201d<\/p>\n
This revelation stands in stark contrast to contemporaneous public pronouncements by BTC maxis on Crypto Twitter\u2122 who repeatedly insisted that the deliberations were dragging on due to a lone Wright-friendly juror digging in his\/her heels. All the more reason to observe the old adage: Believe nothing you hear, and only half that you see.<\/p>\n
Wright is (in)famous for his occasionally brusque social exchanges\u2014a result of his Autism spectrum disorder\u2014but the juror told Bolado that this failed to tilt the jury to Kleiman\u2019s side. Indeed, the juror said Ira Kleiman was the individual whose actions and demeanor \u201cgave me an idea that he was trying to hide something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here again, the jury\u2019s actions belied the public consensus that Wright\u2019s behavior in the witness box was dooming his case. Even Law360\u2019s Bolado, who brought an appropriately neutral stance to most of her daily trial coverage, later described Wright as the \u201cmost unlikable, awful person I\u2019ve ever seen on the stand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The juror left the case with a more positive image of Dr. Wright than Bolado, giving Wright props for acquiring so many educational degrees despite (or perhaps because of) his autistic challenges. The juror said they were \u201creally amazed\u201d by Wright\u2019s \u201ctunnel vision\u201d in pursuit of higher education.<\/p>\n
Whatever their feelings towards the principals, the juror maintained that the jury reached its verdict based solely on the evidence. Notably, the juror stressed that the jury found \u201ca lot of ambiguity\u201d and no \u201cconcrete proof\u201d to support the Kleiman camp\u2019s allegations that Wright had forged documents related to his activities before and after Dave\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
In rejecting Ira Kleiman\u2019s assertions that his brother Dave played a key role in Bitcoin\u2019s development, the jury bolstered the mounting public perception of Wright as the sole inventor of Bitcoin and the real-world individual behind the Satoshi mask. This augurs well for Wright\u2019s future legal dustups and BSV, the only technology that upholds the white paper\u2019s vision of Bitcoin as a \u2018peer-to-peer electronic cash system\u2019 that enables low-cost nano-transactions and data storage. And to all a good night.<\/p>\n
Check out all of the CoinGeek special reports on the\u00a0Kleiman v Wright YouTube playlist.<\/p>\n