'Bitcoin Jesus' agrees to pay nearly $50 million in back taxes to avoid criminal case
A former U.S. citizen who earned the moniker “Bitcoin Jesus” for his evangelism of cryptocurrency has agreed to pay the IRS nearly $50 million in back taxes in exchange for dropping its criminal case against him.
Roger Ver once owned two computer companies in Santa Clara. But he said goodbye to the United States in 2014 and moved to the eastern Caribbean Sea, specifically the island country St. Kitts and Nevis.
When he renounced his U.S. citizenship, Ver owned roughly 131,000 Bitcoins either personally or through companies that he owned, according to federal prosecutors. At the time, Bitcoins traded for around $871 each and Ver was required to pay an “exit tax” on his capital gains.
He hired a law firm to help him with his expatriation process and prepare his tax returns, along with an appraiser to value his companies. But prosecutors say he provided false or misleading information to the law firm and appraiser by hiding the actual number of Bitcoins he owned.
The following year, an appraiser Ver hired to value his companies asked him in an email to provide the number of Bitcoins he owned when he expatriated. That appraiser copied Ver’s attorney in the email, but Ver did not provide a clear answer, according to court documents.
Federal public defenders in Los Angeles have accused the Trump administration of circumventing rules with the way acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli was appointed.
Ver asked, “[c]ompletely hypothetically speaking, what would the ramifications be if I were to have had 200,000 [bitcoins] at the time of my renunciation?”
The lawyer advised Ver to get an appraisal of his personally held Bitcoins from a “third party who [had] no personal interest in the tax implications of the appraisal,” according to court documents.
Ver continued to provide unclear responses to the appraiser. In some emails, the appraiser asked point blank for a number, but instead Ver wrote back about the state of the cryptocurrency market.
“I actually have all the information you need to make it super easy for you. I would just need to explain it all, and then you would affix your name to it,” Ver wrote in an October 2015 email.
He then filed false returns in May 2016, which omitted the true number of Bitcoins he owned.
By November 2017, Ver had sold tens of thousands of Bitcoins on cryptocurrency exchanges for approximately $240 million in cash, according to federal prosecutors. Even though he was no longer a U.S. citizen, Ver was required to report his earnings to the IRS and pay taxes, because his companies were U.S. corporations.
A federal grand jury indicted Ver in April 2024 for mail fraud, two counts of tax evasion and three counts of subscription to a false tax return. At the time, he was living in Tokyo but was arrested in Spain.
Ver agreed to pay his back taxes under an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the charges against him are set to be dismissed.
“Mr. Ver is accepting responsibility for his actions and has agreed to pay a substantial penalty,” acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a statement. “Every person, whether you’re a millionaire or not, is required by law to pay taxes and we will not hesitate to hold anyone accountable.”
Ver’s legal representation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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