The mystery of who leaked the video of a swearing Kevin Rudd looks likely to remain unsolved, with the Australian Federal Police closing the case without identifying a culprit.
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Despite Mr Rudd's concerns that the ''serious'' matter had not been thoroughly investigated, federal police commissioner Tony Negus has written to Mr Rudd, telling him the matter is finalised.
A federal police spokeswoman said ''there was insufficient material or evidence to substantiate charging of any person for theft or unauthorised disclosure''.
The video, filmed in 2009 when Mr Rudd was prime minister, was leaked in February last year during Labor leadership tensions. It showed out-takes of a frustrated Mr Rudd stumbling over a message in Mandarin and letting fly with a stream of profanities.
It was anonymously uploaded to YouTube on a Saturday evening, soon after one of Mr Rudd's supporters had called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to stand down.
The federal police investigated the leak last year and, in November, announced that it had finalised its work.
Mr Rudd requested that the investigation be reopened, arguing that key ministerial staff members had not been interviewed and the US police should be approached to gain access to YouTube records.
In January, the federal police said it was ''talking to some additional people who were identified by Mr Rudd as being potential witnesses''.
But the police have since confirmed that Mr Negus wrote to Mr Rudd last month, advising him that the matter ''remains finalised''.
It is understood that the former prime minister believes there are still questions to answer about the case.
A spokesman for Mr Rudd said: ''Mr Rudd has no comment to make at this time regarding ongoing correspondence between himself and the commissioner.''
In a previous letter to the federal police, Mr Rudd said his ''working hypothesis'' for what happened was that the original tape was retained and stored separately to other videos he made as prime minister and this was ''inadvertently left behind in the prime minister's office in the course of the rapid and unexpected exit'' when he was ousted in June 2010.
He argues it was later uploaded online with the ''obvious intention'' of damaging his reputation.
Last year, Ms Gillard said her office did not have access to the material that was put on YouTube and that any suggestions her office was connected with the leak were ''completely untrue''.
The secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Ian Watt, sent a statement to staff last year, saying an internal review showed the video had not come from the department.
