Man Claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto: I Am Not Involved in Bitcoin

A man claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin, has said he is not involved with the virtual currency, before selecting one of many journalists waiting on his doorstep and saying he'd like to be taken for a free lunch.

The bizarre scenes took place outside Nakamoto's Los Angeles house just hours after a feature published by Newsweek claimed the 64-year-old Japanese-American is the creator of bitcoin. Newsweek is owned by IBT Media, the parent company of IBTimes UK.

After Nakamoto's house and street address were shown in an image on the Newsweek article, a number of journalists arrived at his house to ask about his involvement with the virtual currency - it is claimed the creator, whoever it may be, owns approximately $500 million (£300m) worth of coins.

"I'm not involved with bitcoin, ok?" Nakamoto said to the waiting pack of journalists, adding: "Wait a minute, I want a free lunch first I'm going to go with this guy." He then picked a journalist from the Associated Press at random, before getting into their car and driving to a local sushi restaurant.

According to multiple tweets from journalists at the scene, the AP reporter then drove Nakamoto to the restaurant, but due to many others following thrm, the pair headed to the AP's local bureau.

Upon arriving at the AP offices, Nakamoto entered a lift with the unnamed reporter and several others, including Andrea Chang of the LA Times, who tweeted to say, when asked why he told Newsweek he was involved with bitcoin, Nakamoto said: "No no no, was never involved."

Speaking to AP, he said he was misunderstood in a key portion of the Newsweek story.

"The main reason I'm here is to clear my name, that I have nothing to do with bitcoin, nothing to do with developing. I was just an engineer doing something else. " he told the news agency.

"And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied."

"It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I'm not involved now. That's not what I meant. I want to clarify that," he added.