A United States court has ordered Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, to pay a total of $165,800 in the legal cost to the estate of the late-Dave Kleiman for the two-year-long battle between the two parties.
Per March 16 court documents, the attorneys appointed by Ira Kleiman requested $592,558 in legal fees with an hourly charge between $610 and $1,050, along with a bill of $66,000 as other expenses.
The presiding judge found the requested amount too much, ordering Wright to pay only 20 percent of the total.
“I am personally familiar with the hourly rates charged by the top civil litigators in Palm Beach County. Those rates range between $600 and $700 per hour,” US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart noted.
The judge also pointed out that all claims made by Kleiman’s lawyers were not directly related to the motions or hearings and were poorly specified. They even took unreasonable time for the completion of work, raising the bill further.
Wright was ordered to pay $113,760 in attorney fees and $52,040 as an expense award, totaling $165,800.
A billion-dollar lawsuit
The lawsuit involving billions of dollars worth Bitcoins had been in court for around two years. Filed in February 2018, the estate of Wright’s late business partner accused him of misappropriation of the ownership of between 550,000 and 1.1 million bitcoins, which the two business partners mined together.
The court already ruled in favor of Kleiman’s estate and ordered Wright to turn half of his Bitcoin holdings and intellectual property (IP) rights.
Wright was also slammed in court for presenting forged documents and perjured testimonials.
However, earlier this year, the US court ruled against the previous sanctions against Wright, which were imposed on him in August 2019.
