nChain CEO Denies Avoiding the Kleiman v. Wright Case

Jimmy Nguyen, the chief executive of the nChain Group and a proponent of Bitcoin SV, has come out to refute claims that he’s avoiding the legal battle involving former associate Craig Wright. 

Nguyen’s legal case recently responded to an appeal that he should submit documents that are important to the case. In the document, Nguyen argued that he’s always available and will be willing to comply with any subpoenas. 

“I’m Not Running”

The case, of course, tracks back to one of the longest-running legal battles in the history of the crypto space. Craig Wright, a former nChain computer scientist, and self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, worked with Dave Kleiman, another computer scientist in the early days of Bitcoin. 

When Kleiman died in 2013, Wright had reportedly asked his family for the bitcoins in his portfolio, promising them that he’d pay them the dollar equivalent. When he defaulted, the Kleiman estate, led by Dave’s older brother Ira, sued Wright for the total 1.1 million BTC tokens. 

In the years since then, the two parties have been involved in a legal catfight concerning the tokens. Several names have been drawn into the case, and Nguyen is just the latest to be embroiled in the conflict. The Kleiman estate had explained that Nguyen is a person of interest, although they had tried to contact him to no avail before now. This led them to believe he was evading them, and they tried to get a court to compel him. 

In his response, however, Nguyen denied having evaded the court, explaining that he has been active in the crypto space – both on social media and through the many conferences he’s made in the past. 

For instance, he has been in London and Moscow this year alone, for both the Coingeek Conference and the Future of Sports & Blockchain Conference.

As he explained, the Kleiman attorneys could have served him a subpoena at any of these locations, but they refrained from doing so. Nguyen pointed out that the plaintiffs had been tracking his activity across social media, pointing to the fact that they submitted his Twitter posts to the court. However, they’ve still not contacted him with any legal documents. 

The Case Enters Its Final Act 

The plaintiffs filed a motion earlier this month, urging the court to compel Nguyen to provide valuable documents and also appear for a deposition. At the time, they explained that they had sent him an Email and tried to contact him via Twitter last month. 

However, Nguyen’s team pointed out that the Email was sent to his former address on nChain. They also explained that both messages had only asked the CEO if he’d be willing to accept the subpoena.

“The party has no obligation to agree, and the mere asking of the question is not itself effective service,” they explained.

The case appears to be entering its final act, however, as the documents themselves appear to be very significant. If the Nguyen deposition and case discoveries go through, experts believe that the case should be able to go on as usual, and we could see a resolution before the year ends.