Mr. Wright and Dave Kleiman founded a bitcoin mining and software development firm together in 2011 and owned more than 1.1 million bitcoin between them. Mr. Kleiman died in 2013, and his stake in the company ranged between 50 to 100 percent.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Mr. Kleiman’s estate, claims Mr. Wright created at least three fraudulent contracts and a computer-generated signature to claim bitcoin mined by Mr. Kleiman.
The suit also alleges Mr. Wright attempted to claim intellectual property rights to blockchain technology, on which bitcoin operates, developed by Mr. Kleiman.
Mr. Kleiman’s estate seeks $5,118,266,427.50 worth of bitcoin and IP rights as part of the lawsuit, according to CNBC.
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