Australian Authorities Conduct Criminal Investigation Against Alleged Bitcoin Creator Craig Wright

Last month, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of bitcoin, became the talk of the town with all fingers pointing towards Craig Wright, a 44-year-old Australian man. The Australian Federal Police raided Wright’s Sydney home around the same time, however, they said that the officers' "presence at Mr. Wright's property is not associated with the media reporting overnight about bitcoins".

But, there’s more to the story. According to latest update on the matter, a criminal investigation is being carried out by a special team from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) against Wright which involves serious allegations. The news was first reported by The Australian.

Recent reports suggest that the Australian Federal Police and the ATO have been assessing the claims regarding millions of dollars paid to companies owned or associated with Wright, The Merkle reported. The investigation aims to unravel the amount of bitcoin owned by Wright, and whether it matches the tax claims that have been made.

“The team has been interviewing Mr Wright’s former business associates in Sydney about tax claims he made through businesses and as an individual, while the ATO has been questioning former associates on supposed deals done through Mr Wright’s network of companies that claim to have about $300 million in market cap­italisation backed through Bitcoin”, CoinDesk quoted the report.

When the news about Wright being the man behind the mask of Satoshi Nakamoto first broke, Gizmodo and Wired provided string of leaked emails as evidence behind their claims. However, the Australian authorities do not believe in these claims and rather think that Wright himself may have created the hoax to distract authorities from his tax issues. Moreover, they believe that Wright has left the country and is in England at present.