From Wednesday's decision in Wright v. McCormack (Ct. App. Eng. & Wales) (Lord Justice Warby, joined by Lord Justice Singh and Lady Justice Andrews) (headings and paragraph numbers deleted):
The issue on this appeal is whether damages for defamation can properly be reduced to reflect the claimant's fraudulent exaggeration of the claim. That is what the trial judge did here. The appellant says that he was wrong in law to do so because it can never be legitimate to make a reduction on that ground.
The appellant is Dr Craig Wright. He is a businessman active in the field of cryptocurrency who maintains that he is Satoshi Nakamoto ("Satoshi"). Satoshi is the name used by the author or authors of a famous 2008 "White Paper" entitled Bitcoin: a Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System. It is widely believed that Satoshi invented the cryptocurrency of that name and currently holds a large quantity of Bitcoin. Dr Wright is involved in the promotion of something called "Bitcoin Satoshi Vision" or BSV. Dr Wright's claim that he is Satoshi has been widely published.
In April 2019 Peter McCormack, a blogger and podcaster about cryptocurrency, posted a series of tweets about the appellant's claims and conduct. He began with "Craig Wright is not Satoshi". He repeated that assertion, adding "Craig Wright is a fraud", "BSV is a fake Bitcoin run by frauds", "Craig Wright fraudulently claimed to be Satoshi", "let's go to court and prove once and for all that he is a liar and a fraud", and other similar statements. In October 2019 Mr McCormack also took part in a video discussion on YouTube in which he said, among other things, "Craig Wright is a fucking liar, and he's a fraud; and he's a moron; he is not Satoshi." Dr Wright sued him for libel.
