It's not that he didn't pay tax, it's that he defrauded the government out of $54m through bogus R&D he claimed he spent non-existent Bitcoin on (backed up by his secret claims to have been Satoshi). Now it's all come out in the wash that he's a fraud and the Aussie police are out for him. Hence why I think they may have been behind the leak. Why spend a lot of time and money investigating something you know very little about when the Bitcoin community can out the guy in a couple of hours?
It looks like there was tax fraud prior to that as well.
Hotwire was only incorporated in June 2013 and the ATO withheld a $3 million GST refund for the September 2013 quarter, which is what precipitated the insolvency of Hotwire. So in their first quarter of operation they submitted GST claims which the ATO did not find legitimate. The ATO also with-held R&D credits of $9.6 million for Hotwire.
De Morgan is another Wright company and the one which is under investigation for the $54 million R&D rebate claim. Apart from any tax fraud issues arising from this investigation, there are also potential securities fraud issues. It's a public company and that creates its own legal issues.
It's probably worth pointing out that the AFP is our federal police. They both investigate in their own right and provide support to government departments in investigating high value or novel crimes which break federal laws. They also assist the state police forces where appropriate.
It's beyond ridiculous to believe that ordinary people can understand Bitcoin but federal agencies whose job it is to investigate financial crimes cannot. While the use of Bitcoin in this particular situation is novel, it's not like it hasn't featured in other investigations in the past - especially those related to Silk Road. The potential for it to be used for money laundering/terrorism financing has been acknowledged by federal agencies for a long time. They get how it works and they have both the resources and the authority to access data which no-one else can. These guys investigate complex financial crimes all the time.
I also think you're over-estimating the value of the "Bitcoin community" in investigations such as this one. The Bitcoin community has been largely unaware of this guy and he certainly wasn't on their "is this guy Satoshi" radar before any more than Ross Ulbricht was on their radar prior to the Silk Road busts. The community at large would not be aware if he's managed to acquire $30 million in Bitcoin in ways which aren't recorded in the blockchain. The individuals who would have knowledge of such transactions would have their own compelling motives for remaining silent.
