Bitcoin's Creator is Traced in Australia


12/09/2015

Last night the police raided the Sydney home of Craig Wright, who was called the creator of the famous cryptocurrency Bitcoin by some specialized media before. Authorities say the searches are not relevant to the messages, but rather associated with Australian tax authorities’ own investigation.



The search was attended by about two dozen police officers. The authorities refused to report on the search’s results, which took place a few hours after publications on Wired and Gizmodo. They reported that the mysterious creator of Bitcoin is a 44-year-old Australian Craig Steven Wright. Previously, the creator of this system was unknown – people were only informed about his pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Craig Wright is head of the Australian company DeMorgan Ltd, which, by his own description in the LinkedIn, is «engaged in alternative currency." The searches took place not only in Wright’s residence in a district of Sydney, but also in the office of another associated company, Panopticrypt Pty Ltd. Local reporters arrived at the place did not receive comments from the police, but were told instead that representatives of law enforcement are talking with employees. Press service of the Sydney Police also declined to comment, saying only that "the presence of police officers at the residence is not caused by reports in the media" and advised to contact local tax offices. In turn, the tax authorities reported that they "do not comment on individual tax cases."

According to some specialized media, the cryptocurrency’s creator, whoever he may be, can hold about 1 million Bitcoins, now equivalent to $ 420 million. Since the end of last year, Australian authorities have paid special attention to transactions with Bitcoin in terms of taxes and combating money laundering. The authorities of this country consider Bitcoin not as a currency, but rather an asset, and believe that they should be taxed on capital gains. Thereafter, a number of Australian banks announced closure of accounts of companies working with Bitcoin. As a result, more than a dozen of Australian companies had to stop the activity.

source: theguardian.com