Attorney Files Lawsuit Against DHS in Effort to Reveal Satoshi Nakamoto’s Identity

Legal professional James A. Murphy has introduced motion in opposition to the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit was initiated to compel the discharge of presidency data associated to the id of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

The swimsuit was filed on April 7, 2025, following the division’s failure to reply to Murphy’s Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) request dated February 12, 2025.

DHS Agent Allegedly Confirmed Data Of Satoshi Nakamoto

In accordance with court documents, Murphy is searching for data of an interview that DHS allegedly performed with the individual or individuals utilizing the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. This improvement comes following the Bitcoin creator’s birthday, which happened on April 5.

The grievance cites public statements made by DHS Particular Agent Rana Saoud at a 2019 convention, the place she allegedly confirmed that DHS is aware of Nakamoto’s id and had despatched brokers to California to interview him.

The lawsuit comes amid growing authorities curiosity in Bitcoin. The grievance referenced President Trump’s March 6, 2025, Govt Order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.” In addition they famous that just about 20 states are presently contemplating laws to authorize investing public funds in Bitcoin.

The lawsuit facilities on statements made by DHS Particular Agent Rana Saoud throughout a presentation on the OffshoreAlert Convention North America on April 29, 2019.

Court docket paperwork quote Saoud as explaining {that a} “actually good, forward-leaning agent” had requested to interview Nakamoto. Regardless of preliminary skepticism and “push again” from headquarters, brokers have been despatched to California for the assembly. When the brokers arrived, they reportedly found that Nakamoto “wasn’t alone in creating” Bitcoin and that “there have been three different individuals” concerned.

The grievance states that Saoud described how the brokers “sat down and met with them and talked to them to learn the way this truly works and what their motive for it was.” Regardless of this public disclosure, the identities of those 4 people have by no means been revealed to the general public, in accordance with the lawsuit.

FOIA Request Historical past And Authorities Inaction

Murphy’s swimsuit gives a complete timeline of efforts he undertook to get data requested by means of the lawful FOIA course of earlier than being pressured to sue. On February 12, he requested data from 4 classes.

The data included whether or not there was any transcript of Saoud’s statements in 2019 that have been made publicly. These embrace a file of any interview executed by DHS with somebody utilizing the identify Satoshi Nakamoto, a file of any interviews with others who claimed to be the inventors of Bitcoin, and a file of any data that mentioned the id of the creator(s) of Bitcoin.

The grievance signifies that DHS accepted the request for paperwork on February 13, 2025, and assigned monitoring quantity 2025-HQFO-02468 to the request. DHS additionally forwarded the request to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is a element of DHS. Nevertheless, on February 19, ICE knowledgeable Murphy that they supposed to course of the request beneath a previous monitoring quantity (2025-ICFO-17214) assigned to an identical request made by Murphy earlier.

Satoshi’s id will undoubtedly proceed to be of big curiosity, particularly contemplating that the Bitcoin creator’s net worth is 1.1 million BTC, value round $86.9 billion based mostly on the flagship crypto’s present worth.

Murphy’s Grievance Reveals Curiosity in Bitcoin’s Creator

Murphy’s grievance emphasizes the general public curiosity in figuring out Bitcoin’s creator. The lawsuit factors to President Trump’s current government order directing that each one Bitcoin held by the federal authorities be positioned in a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. It additionally authorizes the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce to develop “budget-neutral methods for buying further Bitcoin.”

The grievance additionally references pending U.S. Senate laws to ascertain a Bitcoin reserve operated by the Treasury Division and notes that just about 20 states are contemplating legal guidelines to permit public fund funding in Bitcoin.

In accordance with the submitting, many private and non-private corporations presently maintain Bitcoin as treasury property. Notably, Technique holds over 500,000 Bitcoin. Nevertheless, Strategy halted Bitcoin purchases with no acquisitions made within the first week of April. This was following a current drop in Bitcoin worth to as little as $74,000.