Australian behind false Bitcoin claim given suspended jail term

An Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the founder of Bitcoin received a suspended jail sentence Thursday in Britain for contempt of court after breaching a judge's order.

High Court judge James Mellor sentenced Craig Wright to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, in his latest ruling against the 54-year-old.

Wright lost a legal battle earlier this year over claims that he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym attributed to the person widely credited with establishing the cryptocurrency.

He had been sued by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa), a non-profit group including cryptocurrency firms, after having made the claims since 2016.

Mellor ruled in March that Wright had "lied extensively" to support the false claim and issued a court order barring him from launching or threatening further legal action related to Bitcoin.

However, in a hearing this week lawyers for Copa ...