Blogs & Articles: Wright’s Side Used Controversial Private Intelligence Agency in Norwegian Legal Drama 🔗 23 weeks ago

An article by DN Magasinet translated from Norwegian to English by Arthur van Pelt

Text: Magnus Newth and Morten Ånestad
Photos: Mikaela Berg, Petter Berntsen
November 19, 2023

Diligence LLC was founded by veterans of the CIA and MI5. The agency was “invaluable” for Craig Wright in a Norwegian legal process between hodlonaut and Craig Wright, according to a confidential report.

Craig Wright in the Oslo district court. One of his lawyers, Schjødt partner Halvor Manshaus in the background. Photo: Mikaela Berg

A report produced by Diligence LLC provides a rare insight into an otherwise closed world of international conflicts and privatized intelligence.

The report shows how the agency has monitored the former Aker manager hodlonaut, in connection with an international legal dispute. The case is against Craig Wright, the controversial, self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor. Craig Wright believes that the Norwegian citizen had exposed him to libel in 2019.

Diligence has worked for a long time on hodlonaut’s case, according to the report. The agency writes that it has surveyed over 100 online groups, thousands of users and has copied millions of messages to put hodlonaut in the context of an alleged cartel that has coalesced against Wright.

We establish a presence in various relevant groups, which allows us to monitor everything from the inside. This has proven to be invaluable in the appeal process in Norway.

The report states.

The private intelligence agency was founded in London in 2000, by ex-spies with backgrounds respectively from the American CIA and British MI5.

Hodlonaut has won the first round in the Oslo District Court, but Craig Wright’s counsel Schjødt has appealed.

I have a feeling that substantial resources have been used in a dirty game to silence or destroy me and others who have spoken out critically.

Says hodlonaut.

Hodlonaut with lawyer Marie Bjørk Myklebust from DLA Piper. She and colleague Ørjan Salvesen Haukaas have led the case. Photo: Mikaela Berg

Economic motives

The dispute with self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright began when hodlonaut fired his shots on Twitter, reacting to Wright’s claims. Among more, he called Wright “a very sad and pathetic scammer.”

Hodlonaut was at one point technology manager at Kjell Inge Røkke’s Bitcoin venture Seetee, but when he lashed out at Craig Wright in 2019 he was a primary school teacher with an anonymous Twitter account.

Last year, a Norwegian judge concluded that hodlonaut’s actions were not defamatory, but Craig Wright’s lawyers at Schjødt have appealed that judgment. In the appeal, which DN has gained access to, they write that hodlonaut coordinated a broad campaign of internet harassments against Wright, and that this campaign was financially motivated. Wright has launched his own version of Bitcoin called BSV, while hodlonaut is a supporter of the original variant.

Craig Wright (with his back) and Schjødt partner Halvard Helle. Photo: Petter Berntsen

Intelligence agencies disagree

There are several online groups that are said to be central to the alleged harassment against Wright.

These groups were also a topic when the parties met in the district court in Oslo last year. Schjødt partner Halvor Manshaus tried to grill hodlonaut about one specific group on the Telegram platform, called “Bitcoin Plebs”. Manshaus wanted to know if he controlled the administrator user account behind it.

Hodlonaut denied that. He couldn’t even remember if he had been in the Telegram group either. Hodlonaut won the case, but Craig Wright and his lawyers did not buy the explanation.

We consider this explanation of hodlonaut to be very unreliable.

Schjødt writes in the appeal.

The claim is also found in the Diligence report. The intelligence agency has apparently worked intensively within the Telegram group, trying to map out the opponents of Craig Wright’s Bitcoin variant, BSV.

Reviewing the message history reveals a coordinated campaign against BSV and its supporters. Users were instructed (by hodlonaut, we believe) to troll Calvin Ayre and Craig Wright, and pressure various exchanges to remove BSV.

Calvin Ayre is a controversial Canadian gambling billionaire, and Craig Wright’s closest supporter. Hodlonaut also rejects this claim in the report, and reacts strongly to Schjødt calling his explanation from the courtroom into question.

I am being accused of lying.

Says hodlonaut.

Schjødt partner Halvor Manshaus has not responded to DN’s inquiry about the case. Neither has Diligence, Craig Wright, Calvin Ayre, or any of their PR people.

Craig Wright (in the back) came to the Oslo district court together with a Swedish bodyguard who would only identify himself as “Mike.” Photo: Petter Berntsen

Hodlonaut thinks they are trying to gag him

Diligence was started by CIA veteran Mike Baker and Nick Day, with a background in British MI5. The company’s methods are controversial. A series of articles from the Sunday Times and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism describes how Diligence puts GPS trackers on cars, holds fake job interviews, conducts covert surveillance and digs through bins — all in search of information.

The agency has worked for the country of Qatar, when the country tried to get the football World Cup. A report from Bloomberg describes how Diligence founder Nick Day obtained information from KPMG on behalf of Russian clients, allegedly by tricking an employee into believing he was working for the British government.

In the appeal, Schjødt’s lawyers demand that hodlonaut will submit various private communications on social media.

The correspondence will highlight how hodlonaut, by publishing the Twitter messages, is not only acting as an ordinary private person, but is a commercial actor with a significant financial interest in securing his investment object.

Hodlonaut denies that he has benefited from the conflict. The legal proceedings in London and Oslo have cost over NOK 40 million (around $3,700,000), hodlonaut estimates. This is mainly funded by donations from bitcoin supporters. Since the start of 2022, the contributions have gone into a closed fund from the Opensats foundation.

The Norwegian says he is subject to a so-called SLAPP lawsuit, which is an abbreviation for the English “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” i.e. a lawsuit intended to make someone shut up.

I am aware that such SLAPP lawsuits are used a lot in England, and disappointed that it also happens in Norway.

This is a case that is still ongoing, so I don’t want to say much more.

Says hodlonaut.

He still does not know how Craig Wright found out that it was he who was behind the anonymous Twitter account hodlonaut, but it is known that he was tracked down in Norway by a private investigator.

Covert surveillance

DN recently published a documentary “Ager-Hanssen: I have been in many wars. But nothing has been like this.” about Norwegian Christen Ager-Hanssen, who works with private intelligence in London. Here he talked about his methods, which include covert recordings, “social engineering” and veterans from the Israeli Mossad.

London is the capital of private intelligence companies. Names such as Kroll, Black Cube and precisely Diligence have offices there. Ager-Hanssen described a key reason for using private investigators with an intelligence background in conflicts.

You must use private companies and not lawyers to investigate. Lawyers may have to disclose information to the other party or the court.

Ager-Hanssen managed Craig Wright’s legal proceedings, until they ended up in a bitter, and very public conflict earlier this year. Now Ager-Hanssen has offered to help hodlonaut with his case.

I will be cautious towards him, but I am happy that he has chosen to tell the truth about Craig Wright.

Says hodlonaut.

Wright’s Side Used Controversial Private Intelligence Agency in Norwegian Legal Drama was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.