The third day of the Kleiman v Wright civil trial has begun, and Ira Kleiman takes the stand as the third witness of the day and the sixth that was called on by the plaintiff.
Ira Kleiman is the brother of the late David Kleiman and the representative of the David Kleiman estate. Through the trial, the plaintiff hopes to prove that David Kleiman was the co-author of Craig Wright in the Bitcoin white paper and his business partner in W&K Info Defense Research, LLC, which programmed, promoted and mined Bitcoin.
The BTC that Ira Kleiman is claiming he has a right to as David Kleiman’s brother is owned by Wright and is supposedly stolen from David Kleiman after his death in 2013. The plaintiff is demanding from Wright at least “at least $11,427,755,048.02,” and the “return of the IP, or its fair market value,” not inclusive of treble and punitive damages.
However, the amount at stake could go as high as $35 billion as Wright’s 1.1 million BTC is currently valued at about $70 billion. And if Kleiman wins this case, it may be the largest amount awarded in a civil lawsuit this year.
Read more: Kleiman vs. Wright Day 1: Opening Statements
Ira Kleiman was not present during the second day of the trial and was about an hour late today. As he takes the stand, he explains the reason for his absence on Tuesday: his colon was removed when he was only 23 years old, and this prevents him from sitting down for a long time.
Kurt Wuckert Jr., who is covering the entire duration of the trial from inside the courtroom, describes Kleiman looking like a frail, old man. The plaintiff’s counsel, Andrew Scott Brenner, starts off by giving him very simple questions, such as when a lawyer would question a child: “Ira, do you understand that Counselor Rivero is also going to ask you questions?”
“I think they were trying to set up Ira as this simple, kind man who’s been victimized by this aggressive man Craig on the other side of the trial here. And Rivero stood up after about a minute and a half of questioning and said, ‘Your Honor, I object to this because Mr. Kleiman should have been given this information by his counsel, not in the courtroom.’ This is very weird. And the judge agreed,” Wuckert opined and recalled during his lunchtime livestream update.
The questioning continued despite the shaky beginning, although no new information has been revealed that would make or break the case. Lunch break is then declared without the defense being able to cross-examine Kleiman.
“No bombshells yet, no big, groundbreaking things. [It’s] very much setting the tone. And we’ve been listening to nothing but the Kleiman side all day. And I’m very excited to hear the cross-examination, which I believe will be from Counsel Rivero, and see how he handles Ira Kleiman… If it’s anything like how he handled Andreas Antonopoulos, I expect fireworks,” Wuckert concluded.
Watch the Day 3 of the Kleiman v Wright special report from Kurt Wuckert Jr. below.
