A British man has said he’s not guilty of fraud after allegedly convincing an investor that he’s Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
According to the Standard, the alleged victim says that Stephen Nour Mollah, 58, “dishonestly” led him to believe that he’s Satoshi Nakamoto from November 2022 to October 2023. He apparently claimed to be in possession of 165,000 bitcoins in Singapore — worth up to $5 billion during that timeframe.
Mollah faces a single charge of fraud along with an accomplice, 67-year-old Charles Anderson, in a private prosecution in London.
Did you know? Satoshi Nakamoto is the director of Coinbase, CoinDesk, and Mt. Gox
Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity has been the subject of speculation for years. HBO’s latest documentary claimed to have identified Satoshi as former bitcoin developer Peter Todd. Hours before its release, however, Todd publicly denied it was him.
The answer was in front of our face all along. Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity was actually revealed on Medium — and, you guessed it, Mollah is the mastermind.
“Hoffman Investigation Team has Found Satoshi Nakamoto, the Elusive Inventor of Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology in London. His Real Name is Stephen Nour Mollah,” the post reads (via Blackdot Solutions).
There is something poetic about this level of half-assed forgery (image via Blackdot Solutions).
Note the use of Cointelegraph’s logo in the image, and the jarring mix of its signature style with obvious photoshop.
Public records also indicate that Mollah has been registered as the director of over 30 dodgy financial firms in the past decade, including Coinbase Limited, CoinDesk Limited, and Mt Gox Bitcoin Exchange Limited.
Most of these firms were dissolved within two years, displaying little to no activity.
Mollah and Anderson’s trial is set for October 3, 2025 in London.
