DOJ charges Roger Ver with tax fraud

Bitcoin investor Roger Ver was charged with tax fraud by the US Department of Justice on Tuesday.

The DOJ is seeking Ver’s extradition for a trial in the US. He was arrested in Spain on US criminal charges. 

The DOJ alleges that Ver evaded $50 million in taxes. Ver, the DOJ noted, became a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis in 2014, but he still had two US companies — MemoryDealers.com and Agilestar.com. The Justice Department said that Ver bought bitcoin for both himself and the two companies. 

Ver was required to pay an “exit tax” on the capital gains. Both the companies and Ver allegedly owned roughly 131,000 bitcoin in 2014, with the companies specifically owning 73,000 of that sum.

“As a result of his expatriation, Ver allegedly was required under U.S. law to file tax returns that reported capital gains from the constructive sale of his world-wide assets, including the bitcoins, and to report the fair market value of his assets,” the DOJ’s release said.

The IRS, the DOJ said, lost “at least” $48 million due to the allegations against Ver. 

“The indictment further alleges that by June 2017, Ver’s two companies continued to own approximately 70,000 bitcoins. Around that time, Ver allegedly took possession of those bitcoins and in November 2017 sold tens of thousands of them on cryptocurrency exchanges for approximately $240 million in cash,” a press release from the DOJ said. 

Ver also provided “false or misleading information” to a law firm he hired so that he could allegedly conceal the amount of bitcoin both he and his companies held. 

“As a result, the law firm allegedly prepared and filed false tax returns that substantially undervalued the two companies and their 73,000 bitcoins and did not report that Ver owned any bitcoins personally,” the release said.

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