The Man Who (Maybe) Created Bitcoin Has His Sidney Home Raided By Police

The man who Wired named as the likely creator of bitcoin has just had his house raided by Australian Federal Police.

Craig Steven Wright found his home being tossed by police in connection with an investigation initiated by the Australian Taxation Office. The raid was apparently entirely unrelated to bitcoin, though what exactly it was about has, as of yet, not been released by police.

The 44-year-old Wright, who is an academic and entrepreneur by day, is suspected to be Satoshi Nakamoto by night. “Satoshi,” the pseudonym of the mind behind bitcoin, was named by Wired after a week-long investigation. Gizmodo also identified Wright as a central figure in the development of the currency but did not name him as the primary creator.

“It’s been a great mystery,” said David Chaikin, a banking and finance lecturer at the University of Sydney. “You’d think he would have gone out there, gone on the talk show circuit and written a couple of books, instead of leading the quiet life in North Sydney. But stranger things have happened.”

In 2014, Newsweek identified the creator of bitcoin as a California engineer named Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, who denied the report.