Craig Wright and his legal team accidentally asked the court to extend the deadline for his response to Kleiman’s latest motion by 90 years. If the judge had approved Wright’s request, his response to the fee motion would be due on Dec. 18, 2109.
More extensions in the crypto trial of the century
The self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto seemed to have gone silent in the past month after he pulled out of the 500,000 BTC settlement reached in his case against Kleiman. Wright, who lost the case against the estate of his former partner Dave Kleiman back in August, was ordered by the court to hand over half of the 1 million BTC he claims to have mined before 2014.
However, about a month and a half into the settlement process, Wright announced he could no longer finance the settlement and was breaking the agreement previously made with Kleiman’s legal team.
So, for the better part of the past month, Wright should have been busy preparing his responses to several motions pending in the trial.
However, in a move that came as no surprise, Wright filed for yet another extension, arguing both parties in the trial required additional time to prepare their responses to the issues raised in the court’s previous motions.
A 32,850-day extension
“The parties respectfully submit that a two-week enlargement of time will allow them to fully brief the issues in their respective responses,” the joint motion said.
The motion would have been just another paper in the sea of documents from the trial if it weren’t for a measly little typo.
If the court had granted the parties’ request, Wright’s response to Kleiman’s motion would have been due on Dec. 18, 2109. Kleiman’s response to a previously made objection would have been due on Dec. 23, 2019.
Wright’s request for a 32,850-day extension would have certainly helped Wright gather the funds he claims are locked in a Tulip trust. However, Judge Bloom’s quick reaction quickly put an end to this—Wright’s motion for extension was denied the same day it was filed.
According to Courtlistener, Judge Beth Bloom signed the following order:
“Paperless order granting in part and denying in part 321 Motion for Extension of Time to File Responses. The Defendant’s response to the Fee Motion is due on December 9, 2019; The Plaintiffs’ response to the Objection is due on December 16, 2019.”
The decision means the public will be seeing more of Craig Wright throughout December—apart from his response due Dec. 9, Wright’s legal counsels are set to appear in a Florida court before Judge Bruce Reinhart on Dec. 16.
The hearing will most likely provide more information to the Kleiman estate as they prepare for the next trial date set for Mar. 20, 2020.
