In court today it was COPA expert witness Patrick Madden’s turn. Cross-examination took place in the morning, and ended much faster than expected. The testimony of COPA’s key witnesses was scheduled to last two days, but ended in just one morning. The key point raised by Craig’s lawyers is that it is possible to configure the system so that signs of document manipulation can be flagged by software. Mr. Madden has often explained that while this is technically possible, it is not likely or feasible. Anyway, this cross-examination was over fairly quickly and as we entered the afternoon the court was presented with a shocking surprise revelation from Mr Wright’s legal team.
MYOB screenshot
These revelations relate to Craig’s MYOB accounting records, which were featured heavily in this trial (Nos. 3, 4, 15 and now 16 to be exact). Craig provided screenshots of the results of this accounting system as evidence at this trial. The output shows the transfer of £795,000 worth of Bitcoin from one of Wright’s companies to another (Information Defense to Wright International Investments). The transaction date is August 2009. If this document is real, it would support the claim that Craig Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, COPA claims the screenshots were not made until March 9, 2020. Evidence for this comes from COPA expert witness Mr Patrick Madden, who obtained raw log files for the accounting software with entries and screenshots dated to March 2020. It must occur after an accounting entry has been made. In response, Craig told the court he would not have been able to produce the records in 2020 because the screenshots were provided by his old lawyer, Ontier, who produced the documents in 2019.
Disclosure from Craig’s lawyer
In court on 26 February 2024, Craig Wright’s solicitor, Lord Grabiner, was forced to show the court a letter that Craig’s old solicitor (Ontier) had sent to his new solicitor (Shoosmiths). This was evidence in court and was particularly damning to Mr. Wright. Considering the circumstances of this case, this is not particularly unusual. What was unusual, however, was what Wright’s lawyer presented. It was almost as if Lord Grabiner was doing the work of Mr Hough, the COPA lawyer. As a result, Mr. Huff had little to say.
The summary of the letter is as follows:
Date: February 8, 2024
From: Ontier
Recipient: Shoesmith
1. Dr. Wright first provided this company with his login details for the MYOB accounting software on March 9, 2020 and we accessed the software for the first time on the same date. MYOB was inaccessible at the end of 2019.
2. We took a series of screenshots from the system on March 9th and 10th, 2020.
3. It is unknown whether AlixPartners accessed MYOB at the end of 2019. You can check the position.
Lord Grabiner went on to reveal emails sent by Wright’s wife, Ramona Watts.
Summary of email from Ramona Watts (Craig’s wife)
Date: February 18, 2024
From: Ramona Watts
Recipient: ShoesmithSee communication between Simon Cohen, Ontier. Regarding the 2019 MYOB login, Ontier said they only received the login details in 2020, but as Craig explained, they and AlixPartners received the login details in 2019.
The above email forwarded another email dated December 2, 2019 containing MYOB login information to be sent to AlixPartners and Ontier. This email was part of a chain. First, Craig emails his login details to Ontier. In the second email, Ontier’s Simon Cohen replied, “Thanks Craig.”
In carrying out COPA’s work, Lord Grabiner pointed the court to Mr Wright’s evidence at this trial.
February 23, 2024 – This trial.
COPA’s question: You told the court that Ontier received MYOB login information in late 2019?
Craig: “I did. “I also have email.”
Lord Grabiner revealed a second damning email from Mr Wright’s old lawyer.
Summary of Ontier’s second email to Shoosmiths
Date: February 23, 2024
From: Ontier
Recipient: ShoesmithWe searched the system. We can confirm that we have found an attached email that is dated December 2, 2019 and contains the same text as the email attached to your email at 11:51. However, the attached email was actually received into our system on Sunday, February 18, 2024. This is determined by email metadata, which can be reviewed by checking the properties of the attached email. For the avoidance of doubt, we have compared the email properties of the email in our system to those of the email attached to your 11:51 email and they are significantly different..
Based on the above, we believe that the email attached to your 11:51 email is not genuine. Of course we have a court I didn’t misunderstand. Please submit a copy of today’s proceedings and confirm and reply on how to proceed.
Lord Grabiner showed the court two versions of the email. In a bizarre moment, it was Lord Grabiner who carried out COPA’s job of proving to the court that Craig (or his wife) had forged the documents. In fact, as Grabiner said in the email above, Craig’s old lawyer demanded that this be brought up in court and requested evidence. Grabiner said:
Therefore, my Lord, if your Lordship holds side by side what I call the Ramona version next to the Ontier version. So we can take a look at that. This message was sent by Craig Wright on December 2, 2019. Again, this is a chain of three emails, but the parent email is of course something completely different.… However, if you compare the two, your Lordships will see that the top emails are completely different and both relate to 2019 communications.
The original 2019 email contained content that included some information about the BlackNet system. In this surprising turn of events, Grabiner proved to the court Mr. Wright’s evil deception.
the rest of the trial
When the trial begins today, Craig Wright’s lawyers have requested that reports from new expert witnesses against him be introduced into evidence. This expert’s name is Peter Bryant. This is probably because Craig considers his current expert, Dr. Placks, to be “unqualified” and “unskilled.” But surprisingly, the request was withdrawn a few hours later in the afternoon on the same day. Mr Wright’s lawyer said:
Dr. Wright is not pursuing the application against Mr. Bryant.
Mr. Wright also indicated that he did not wish to question various other witnesses further, including his own expert, Dr. Placks. This means that COPA cannot cross-examine Dr Placks and the judge is therefore likely to treat COPA favorably in relation to this evidence. There are now a few more witnesses left. Tomorrow Mr Rosendahl is due to be examined tomorrow. After this and a few more witnesses, there will be closing arguments and the trial will finally end. Things are picking up speed now, and there are only a few days left.