Australian businessman Craig Wright has been missing since Gizmodo and Wired published parallel investigations into his potential involvement with the creation of Bitcoin — and police raided his home. While the news cycle has moved on, the Australian Taxation Office certainly hasn’t.
The Australian reports that the ATO and the Australian Federal Police “have intensified their investigation in recent weeks”. While they believe that Wright is now based in Britain, they continue to pursue him:
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.
One aim of the investigation is to establish what holdings of Bitcoin Mr Wright possessed and whether they mirrored claims made in tax receipts.
According to The Australian, officials believe Wright “is not the creator of Bitcoin and that he may have created the hoax to distract from his tax issues”.
Whether or not Wright had a damn thing to do with the invention of Bitcoin, the question remains: Where the hell is he?