Key Points
- Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor, faces charges of mail fraud, tax evasion, and filing false tax returns.
- Ver allegedly hid Bitcoin holdings from the IRS, resulting in a supposed loss of $48 million.
Roger Ver, one of the initial investors in Bitcoin, has been arrested and charged with multiple offenses. The charges, which were recently made public, include mail fraud, tax evasion, and the submission of false tax returns. The arrest occurred in Spain, with potential extradition to the United States being a possibility.
Alleged Concealment of Bitcoin Ownership
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Ver is accused of hiding his Bitcoin ownership from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This alleged concealment is believed to have resulted in a loss of around $48 million.
The indictment alleges that as of June 2017, two companies associated with Ver held approximately 70,000 bitcoins. Ver is accused of taking possession of these bitcoins around that time and selling a significant number of them on cryptocurrency exchanges for an estimated $240 million in cash in November 2017.
Failure to Report and Pay Tax
Despite not being a U.S. citizen at the time, Ver 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. It is alleged that Ver hid from his accountant that he had received and sold bitcoins from MemoryDealers and Agilestar that year. Consequently, Ver’s 2017 individual income tax return did not report any gain or pay any tax related to the distribution of bitcoins to him.
Furthermore, Ver is accused of using legal services to prepare and file false tax returns that undervalued the two companies, concealed their 73,000 BTC holdings, and did not disclose Ver’s personal Bitcoin ownership.
Ver, formerly a resident of Santa Clara, California, renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014 after reportedly gaining citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis. Known online as “Bitcoin Jesus”, Ver was the former CEO of the digital wallet developer Bitcoin.com.
