Le Roux was Wright’s “third man”

After Le Roux was captured by the US in Sep 2012, his priority was to control his Bitcoin holdings. He became extraordinarily cooperative with the DEA to gain access to the outside world. The obvious person to manage his Bitcoins was Kleiman—but Kleiman was seriously ill and brought in his friend Craig Wright. Their idea was to set up a Bitcoin exchange that was to be called Coin-Exch.

Wright already knew Le Roux. In Jan 2011, Wright had a video conference in New York with Kleiman and the “third man” who he said was one part of Satoshi. This third man has been a consistent element in Wright’s story, although his supposed identity has changed over the years. In a deposition in the Kleiman trial, Wright said he could not name the third man due to national security concerns. These concerns related to the activities of an “international crime lord”. The judge required Wright to name this individual and although the name was redacted in the publicly released document, an incorrectly redacted footnote revealed that it was Paul Le Roux.

Wright never named the third man explicitly as Le Roux, although that is the natural conclusion from his frequent changes of story. He eventually settled on the story that the man on the video conference was Gareth Williams, the British GCHQ spy whose body was found in a bag in a London apartment. Wright claimed that Williams had helped him with some technical aspects as he was developing Bitcoin. However, Gareth Williams could not possibly have been on the video conference as he had died the previous August.

What followed this video conference was even stranger. Wright, an Australian ex-computer auditor, travelled on to Panama and Columbia where he made contact with FARC who were an insurgent guerrilla movement. FARC controlled the illegal gold and drug trade and was engaged in people trafficking. On this trip Wright was shot but survived. Wright later claimed to be working undercover for law enforcement, but these claims are unrealistic and unverifiable.

Although Wright may have worked for Le Roux earlier, he only seems to have become involved in bitcoin from 2013. In April, he made a visit to New Jersey and may even have met Le Roux who is recorded on prison records as having been released at this time. If this was not an admin error, Le Roux would have been participating in some DEA operation. Wright established Coin-Exch as a new company in Australia immediately after this visit. From what Wright has said about Coin-Exch, it was intended as a 50/50 joint venture with Kleiman. But Dave Kleiman died tragically just days after the company was established.

Back in Australia, a close work associate, Jamie Wilson, saw an amazing change in Wright’s behaviour. Previously, Wright had been an improvised struggling innovator unable to pay for the coffees at their meetings. Now he suddenly had money and his confidence went through the roof. Everything changed—his clothes, his car and his extravagant spending. Wright established a group of companies and began recruiting staff. If Le Roux was funding Wright, it would have been through his Costa Rica casino operation via Liberty Reserve.

Wright told Wilson that Kleiman had been into Bitcoin mining before him. However, he also gave him the impression that he was the founder of Bitcoin and controlled a vast amount of the currency. 

A Bitcoin exchange would have been the perfect front to help Le Roux manage and perhaps realise some of his Bitcoin holdings. He may even have intended Kleiman and Wright to come out as part of a mysterious Satoshi team while he remained in the shadows. If that was the plan, it soon went badly wrong. Liberty Reserve was closed down by the US government without any compensation for depositors. Deprived of funds, Wright turned to elaborate tax fraud to fund his businesses.

More fundamentally, Satoshi must have quickly lost confidence in Wright who was full of grandiose plans, but incapable of running a real business. Coin-Exch never did operate as an exchange. His new businesses were soon forced to go into administration, while Wright himself was in serious trouble with the Australian Tax Office.

At this point he found a new backer, Calvin Ayre. Wright came out publicly as Satoshi for the first time as his companies were being bought by Ayre. It was all part of the deal, but Wright had been claiming to be Satoshi in private for years.

Wright has always been very confident that the real Satoshi would not emerge to contradict his story. And it is a fact that Satoshi has never has contradicted Wright when all he would need to do is post a signed message. Le Roux, however, can’t contradict Wright who knows too much. And in one sense Wright is indeed the “official” Satoshi—the front for the third man who has always wanted to remain in the shadows.