Roger Ver is famous for deceptively trying to replace Bitcoin with the Bitcoin Cash fork, and at the time I thought he was being used as he’s not that intelligent bearing out below. But in fairness, his serving prison time previously had to do with selling these pest control firecrackers for scaring away birds as I remember, which you could order at the time from Cabelas. Though it’s a good story as he was prosecuted primarily for a talk at a convention he gave with a couple feds in attendance, which shows that if you come up on the government’s radar there exists so many laws you might have run afoul of you can be prosecuted and locked up (jan 6 mostly peaceful protestors anyone?). Consequently, giving a false statement to a fed can land you in prison for perjury, as they have far too much power (never talk to a fed without an attorney if you talk at all). So many people that love Bitcoin are probably happy with Ver’s current situation, and you have to wonder why he didn’t pay his property gains taxes or reside in a country without extradition. But he should be able to afford quality lawyers and get off with a settlement if he still has those millions. Perhaps his old handler will step in and help him for fear of exposure on the Bitcoin Cash op.
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/doj-charges-bitcoin-jesus-tax-fraud
By Turner Wright via CoinTelegraph.com,
The early crypto investor, often called ‘Bitcoin Jesus,’ faces extradition to the U.S. after being charged with evading nearly $50 million in taxes.
Officials with the United States Department of Justice announced charges against early Bitcoin investor Roger Ver, known by many as ‘Bitcoin Jesus.’
In an April 30 notice, the Justice Department said authorities in Spain had arrested Ver based on criminal charges in the United States, including mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
The U.S. government alleged Ver defrauded the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) out of roughly $48 million with his failure to report capital gains on his sale of Bitcoin and other assets.
According to the indictment filed on Feb. 15 but unsealed on April 29, Ver allegedly took control of roughly 70,000 BTC in June 2017 – before the now famous bull run – and sold many of them for $240 million. U.S. officials said they planned to extradite Ver from Spain to the United States to stand trial.
Reactions to Ver’s arrest on social media were mixed.
However, Bitcoiner Dan Held, the former growth lead at Kraken, claimed Ver “deserves everything that he’s about to get” after he “nearly destroyed Bitcoin.”
“Roger attacked my livelihood by trying to get me fired, called up others to hurt my relationships, and attacked my reputation,” said Held on X.
“He misaligned expectations around Bitcoin so much that it led to a civil war.”
A cryptic message was Ver’s most-recent post on X, reading:
Source: Roger Ver
Ver was also a proponent of Bitcoin Cash.
In 2022, he became embroiled in a scandal with crypto investment platform CoinFlex, which claimed he owed them $47 million in USD Coin.
He had not commented on social media regarding the Justice Department charges at the time of publication.
Ver has previously pleaded guilty and served time for selling explosives on eBay.