This week, two reports in the US media claimed that Mr Wright, a computer scientist and serial entrepreneur, was a strong candidate to be the mysterious founder of bitcoin, the digital currency that has taken the finance industry by storm and surged in popularity in recent years.

Wired magazine said it had uncovered enough evidence to suggest that Mr Wright was "probably" the bitcoin founder, who has operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Technology site Gizmodo followed up with a story that reached a similar conclusion.

However, subsequent reports overnight in the US technology press have cast doubt on this thesis.

According to records of the Australian corporate regulator ASIC, Mr Wright is still listed as a director of at least two companies registered at a residential address on Sydney's North Shore.

The Sydney property leased by Craig Steven Wright.

On Wednesday, officers from the Australian Tax Office and the Australian Federal Police raided a suburban property which is believed to be leased by Mr Wright.

However, Fairfax Media understands the raid related to an "individual taxation matter" involving Mr Wright, not any role in the creation of bitcoin.

Wired acknowledged that its report was based on "unverified leaked documents" that it admitted "could be faked in whole or in part" as part of an elaborate hoax.


One of the documents was a liquidation report by Australian insolvency firm McGrath Nicol, about one of Mr Wright's companies, Hotwire Preemptive Intelligence.

McGrathNicol confirmed the veracity of this document to Fairfax Media.

Among other things, the liquidation report states:

Hotwire "was unable to meet its trading liabilities from around February 2014," after the Australian Taxation Office withheld a GST refund claim of about $3.1 million

The ATO told the company in January 2014 it "intended to withhold the refund "pending further verification of transactions and the treatment of Bitcoin."

Mr Wright is still listed as chief executive on the website of DeMorgan Ltd, which describes itself as a "a pre-IPO Australian listed company focused on alternative currency, next generation banking and reputational and educational products". The company lists a number of bitcoin related subsidiaries on its website.

Australia's bitcoin community is divided on whether Mr Wright is in fact the identity behind Satoshi Nakamoto.

It is not the first time media outlets have claimed to unmask the founder of bitcoin. Last year, Newsweek thought it had found the mysterious person behind the cryptocurrency.

But the man it named, Dorien Nakamoto, unconditionally denied Newsweek's claim, and subsequently sued the publication.

