A wave of viral social media posts claims that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein Bitcoin was invented. The speculation was sparked by doctored emails circulating online that purportedly showed Epstein claiming to be the author of Bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
However, France24’s True and False section says the claims are unfounded and the email was not released in the latest installment of the Epstein files.
The name Satoshi Nakamoto is used by the creator of Bitcoin, whose identity is a mystery.
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“Digital little gold mine”
The account stems from an email purportedly sent by Epstein to his right-hand man, Ghislaine MaxwellOctober 31, 2008.
The email, which circulated on platforms such as
The email read: “Ghislaine, the pseudonym for ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ is working great. Our little digital gold mine is ready for the world. Funding is in place.”
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Why are emails fake?
After careful review, France24 discovered that the document was fake, finding formatting errors such as the two lines “To:”.
France24 also stated that there are 24 search results for the term “Satoshi Nakamoto” in the official files of the US Department of Justice. Epstein Filesnone of which match the email documents circulating online.
A search for the term “small digital gold mine” in the Justice Department’s Epstein dossier also yielded no results.
Also, the email ID in the email (jepstein@financial.net) is different from the email ID (jeevacation@gmail.com) often indicated by Epstein Files.
France24 fact-checking specifically flagged the doctored messages as disinformation, noting that Epstein was not actually the creator of Bitcoin, and certainly not Satoshi Nakamoto.