Yesterday, two tech publications, Wired and Gizmodo, reported that leaked legal interviewers suggest the creator of Bitcoin – known as Satoshi Nakamoto – is in fact an Australian entrepreneur and academic named Craig Wright. Today, Australian police raided the home and offices of Wright.

See related Bitcoin’s pseudonymous inventor nominated for a Nobel Prize How to buy bitcoin in the UK: Turn your cash into cryptocurrency in 2017 Reuters reported that over a dozen police officers entered the home of Craig Wright after a locksmith broke open the door. When asked what they were doing, an officer told a reporter that they were “clearing the house”.

A statement released by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) claims that the raid isn’t connected to yesterday’s allegations. “The AFP can confirm it has conducted search warrants to assist the Australian Taxation Office at a residence in Gordon and a business premises in Ryde, Sydney. This matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency Bitcoin.”

The documents published yesterday by Gizmodo include what appears to be a transcript from a meeting between Wright, his lawyer and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The meeting seems to be based on Wright convincing the ATO to treat his Bitcoin holdings as a currency, and at one point Wright allegedly says: “I did my best to try and hide the fact that I’ve been running Bitcoin since 2009, but I think it’s getting – most – most – by the end of this half the world is going to bloody know.”

Reuters says that police wearing white gloves have been seen searching Wright’s garage, and police wearing shirts tagged with “Computer Forensics” have also reportedly been seen entering Wright’s offices.

Nobel Prize nomination

Last month, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin was nominated for a Nobel Prize. Following news that the currency had been ruled tax-free in Europe by the European Court of Justice, UCLA professor of finance Bhagwan Chowdhry put forward Satoshi Nakamoto for a Nobel Prize nomination.

“Beyond demonstrating the possibility of creating a reliable digital currency, Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin Protocol has spawned exciting innovations in the FinTech [financial technology] space by showing how many financial contracts – not just currencies – can be digitised, securely verified and stored, and transferred instantaneously from one party to another. The implications of this are immense,” said Chowdhry at the time.

While Austrlian authorities deny that the raids are connected to allegations that Wright is the founder of Bitcoin, the timing does seem a little more than coincidental. Wright’s landlord told Guardian Australia that Wright and his wife had recently switched their lease to month-by-month, and that they were planning to move to London in December. There has not yet been any news of Wright’s location.