Craig Wright, the man suspected to be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, is in the news again after it was revealed he attempted to sell a large amount of the cyptocurrency for gold.

According to court documents obtained by The Australian newspaper, Wright alleged to have attempted to purchase AU$84.25 million (US$60.7 million) worth of gold and software using Bitcoin based on advice from a dubious businessman by the name of Mark Ferrier.

It’s not entirely clear from the report how far the deal actually went, but at some stage it turned sour, with Wright suing Ferrier for the amount in the Australian Federal Court.

Wright alleges the pair met at a mining conference where Ferrier agreed to buy software on his behalf, before later persuading him to purchase gold by making the claim that gold was a good asset to have in case the price of his “funny money” Bitcoin crashed.

The court documents also indicate that as of May 2013, Wright claimed he could draw Bitcoin from one wallet to the value of AU$100 million (US$72 million), a sizable sum given the US/BTC rate in the middle of that month was $120.72.

The court claim is said to have followed Ferrier’s arrest and extradition on parole breaches relating to an earlier dishonesty charge; Wright subsequently withdrew the case the following year and gave no explanation as to why he did so.

Ferrier denies even knowing who Wright was, telling the paper that he had “not received one cent from Wright” and had “never met the bloke” prior to the action being filed.

Busy times

News of Wright’s court case comes following drama for the alleged Bitcoin creator last week after his Sydney house was raided by the Australian Federal Police as part of an investigation into tax avoidance by one of his companies; police have denied that the raid was related to the claim that Wright was Satoshi Nakamoto, but likewise the exposure, and now claim that he potentially holds Bitcoins valued in at least the hundreds of millions, may well result in further investigation into Wright’s financial affairs by the Australian Taxation Office, the government department currently looking at his books.

As for whether Wright is indeed Satoshi Nakamoto or not remains up in the air; the fact that he holds such a large amount of Bitcoin could lead credence to the argument that he is, but likewise, as we noted when news of the link first emerged, it may simply demonstrate that he knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is because it’s clear he was involved in Bitcoin from its very early days in some form or another.

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