The Justice Department revealed on Monday that Ver avoided at least $48 million in US taxes.

In the early days of cryptocurrencies, Ver was known as Bitcoin Jesus. He created Bitcoin Cash after he split with a number of Bitcoin miners who did not support the blockchain upgrades. Ver championed Bitcoin Cash.

As per the most recent declaration, in the beginning of 2014, Ver renounced his US citizenship and became a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis. He still had holdings in MemoryDealers and Agilestar, US-incorporated computer and networking equipment companies.

The US government argues that Ver began purchasing Bitcoins for his own use and the use of his companies in 2011. He is alleged to have failed to pay an exit tax in the course of his expatriation. He is said to have also deceived a law firm, which he employed to fill out counterfeit tax forms.

Supposedly, Ver was demanded by US law to submit tax returns that showed gains from the constructive sale of his worldwide assets, which also included the Bitcoins, and the fair market value of his assets after expatriation. The Justice Department emphasized that he was supposedly forced to pay an “exit tax” on those capital gains.

US investigators reckon that Ver and his companies had 131,000 bitcoins at the time he became a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis. The two companies possessed 73,000 bitcoins.

The Justice Department stated that Ver provided the law firm and appraiser with either wrong or incomplete information about how many bitcoins Ver and his companies held. The law firm supposedly came up with and submitted overvalued tax returns that undervalued the two companies and their 73,000 bitcoins and failed to show that Ver owned any bitcoins.

Additionally, Ver’s company also sold “tens of thousands” of bitcoins for $240 million in November 2017. The US authorities required him to file the profits with the IRS and pay tax on the dividends from the two US-incorporated companies.

The Justice Department stated that Ver’s 2017 personal tax return showed no profit or payment of tax on the Bitcoins of MemoryDealrs and Agilestar. Ver is said to have caused IRS losses of at least $48 million.

The post “Bitcoin Jesus” Detained in Spain on Charges of Tax Evasion appeared first on Coin Engineer.

Among others who reflected on Ver, Schwartz and other authors of his company stated that Roger Ver was one of the nicest and most genuine people that they had ever encountered and that his behavior was a result of his strong belief in the rightness of his moral principles. However, he did admit that people have different views of Ver’s impact, with some seeing him in a positive way and others in a negative way.

The XRPL creator made a suggestion that Roger Ver might escape the US to preserve his moral compass in the face of significant tax issues.

I believe the first time we started to have issues with the US government was a major factor. — On May 1, 2024, David “JoelKatz” Schwartz tweeted as @JoelKatz.

Schwartz suggested that ideological differences are the cause of the accusations against Ver, which supports the notion that Roger Ver has been hounded for his views before. In particular, he suggested that Ver’s early involvement in Ripple may have been a factor in the company’s early conflicts with the US authorities.

In a recent news release, the U.S. Department of Justice informed the public that Ver, also known as the “Bitcoin Jesus,” was arrested in Spain. Roger Ver is accused of evading taxes and mail fraud. Indictment has it that the federal government lost at least $48 million due to Ver’s purported involvement in a scheme that led to defraud of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The post Ripple CTO David Schwartz Comments on Roger Ver’s Arrest appeared first on Coin Engineer.