Blockchain
Early Bitcoin investor Roger Ver has been charged with tax fraud
Roger Ver, now a bitcoin cash (BCH) supporter, but one of the first bitcoin (BTC) investor, was indicted Tuesday on tax fraud, a press release the US Department of Justice said.
The statement said Ver was arrested over the weekend in Spain and will be asked to be extradited to the United States.
Known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” Ver is accused of failing to file tax returns from the sale of assets or paying an “exit tax” on capital gains after he renounced his U.S. citizenship and started businesses and obtained citizenship in St Kitts and Nevis.
Ver sold “tens of thousands” of bitcoins in November 2017, netting $240 million in cash, the Justice Department said. “Even though Ver was not then a U.S. citizen, he was still legally obligated to report to the IRS and pay taxes on certain distributions such as dividends from MemoryDealers and Agilestar, which were U.S. corporations,” the Justice Department said.
“Ver allegedly concealed from his accountant that he received and sold bitcoins from MemoryDealers and Agilestar that year,” the government continued. “As a result, Ver’s 2017 individual tax return did not report any earnings or pay any taxes related to the distribution of MemoryDealers and Agilestar bitcoins to him.”
UPDATE (April 30, 2024, 7:17 PM UTC): Adds a link to the 2002 DOJ press release from Ver’s conviction for selling explosives, as well as a line on Ver’s most recent X post.