- The UK High Court has approved Peter McCormack’s application for a global freezing order against Craig Wright’s assets.
- McCormack is seeking to recover more than £1.5 million ($1.9 million) in legal fees related to the defamation lawsuit Wright brought against the podcaster.
The UK High Court has issued a world freezing order, or ‘WFO’, on the assets of Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, who sued entrepreneur and podcaster Peter McCormack in 2019.
In that case, the court granted McCormack’s WFO application against Wright, and McCormack is expected to recover more than £1.5 million ($1.9 million) in legal fees as a result of the ruling.
This is according to legal documents filed on Friday, July 5.
Wright sued McCormack for defamation but lost.
In 2019, Wright filed a defamation lawsuit against McCormack, accusing the podcaster of defamation for making comments that Wright was not Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto.
Wright lost the case in August 2022, and his appeal was dismissed on July 26, 2023. The UK Supreme Court also dismissed Wright’s appeal in December 2023.
In his ruling, Judge Mellor also addressed developments surrounding the COPA trial. In May 2024, the judge ruled that Craig Wright was neither Satoshi Nakamoto nor the creator of Bitcoin. The ruling also clarified that Craig Wright did not write the Bitcoin white paper that introduced the world’s largest digital asset.
Peter McCormack shared the latest ruling against Wright on the matter, noting that the worldwide freezing order of “£1,548,000” would help him recover his legal fees.