The Story
Ten years of fraud, from the taxman to the courtroom
How an Australian IT consultant in trouble with the tax office became the self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin, and how the British courts finally exposed him.
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2014 The taxman comes calling
The Australian Taxation Office begins scrutinising multi-million-dollar research and development tax claims made by Wright’s companies, claims that rest on deals involving Bitcoin.
June 2015 The bailout
Facing financial ruin, Wright signs a deal with a group of wealthy backers that settles his tax affairs and gives him a new job in England. The deal rests on one premise: that he is Satoshi Nakamoto.
Dec 2015 Outed, then raided
Wired and Gizmodo publish stories naming Wright as the likely creator of Bitcoin. Within hours, Australian police raid his Sydney home and office in connection with the tax investigation.
May 2016 “I am Satoshi”
Wright tells the BBC, The Economist and GQ that he invented Bitcoin. The cryptographic “proof” on his blog is quickly shown to reuse a signature already public since 2009. Days later he backs out with a short apology.
Feb 2018 Kleiman v Wright
Ira Kleiman, brother of Wright’s late friend Dave Kleiman, sues Wright in Florida, claiming a share of Bitcoin and intellectual property he says the two men built together.
2019 Suing the critics
Wright starts taking the people who call him a fraud to court, beginning with libel claims against podcaster Peter McCormack and the Twitter user known as Hodlonaut.
2020–21 “The world’s biggest hack”
Wright claims that hackers broke into his home network in February 2020 and stole the keys to 111,000 Bitcoin, worth billions. His company, Tulip Trading, then sues 16 Bitcoin developers, demanding they change Bitcoin’s code to hand the coins back.
2021 COPA fights back
After Wright threatens one of its members over the copyright to the Bitcoin white paper, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance takes him to the High Court, asking it to declare that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto.
2021–23 A flood of lawsuits
Wright files claim after claim against Bitcoin developers and exchanges, over the copyright to the white paper, Bitcoin’s file format and even the right to use the name Bitcoin. Combined, his lawsuits are worth more than a trillion dollars.
Dec 2021 The Miami verdict
A Miami jury rejects most of the Kleiman estate’s claims, but orders Wright to pay $100 million to W&K Info Defense Research, the company he ran with Dave Kleiman, for converting its intellectual property.
2022 The £1 victory
Wright wins his libel claim against Peter McCormack, but the High Court awards him just £1, finding that he advanced a deliberately false case. In Norway, a court rules that Hodlonaut did not defame Wright by calling him a fraud.
Feb–May 2024 COPA v Wright: “not Satoshi”
COPA’s case against Wright finally goes to trial in London. In March, Mr Justice Mellor rules from the bench that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto. His written judgment in May finds that Wright lied extensively and forged documents on a grand scale.
Dec 2024 Contempt of court
After Wright launches a new claim against Bitcoin developers, in breach of the injunctions that followed the COPA judgment, the High Court finds him in contempt and gives him a suspended prison sentence of 12 months.
This is just the tip of the iceberg…the whole thing will blow your mind.