Bitcoin ‘Jesus’ arrested for US$50 mln tax fraud

Roger Ver, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and Bitcoin Cash promoter, was arrested in Spain on charges of evading nearly US$50 million in U.S. taxes and committing mail fraud, according to the Department of Justice.

The indictment alleges that Ver failed to report capital gains from his substantial Bitcoin assets after renouncing his U.S. citizenship in 2014.

The DOJ is now seeking Ver’s extradition to face trial in the United States.

The case against Ver alleges that he and his companies, MemoryDealers and Agilestar, held approximately 131,000 Bitcoins in 2014, with the companies owning 73,000 of those.

Despite selling tens of thousands of Bitcoins for around US$240 million in November 2017, Ver allegedly failed to disclose these gains to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The indictment accuses him of providing false information to a law firm and an appraiser to hide the true size of his Bitcoin holdings.

Ver is known for promoting Bitcoin Cash, a Bitcoin spinoff.

He obtained the nickname “Bitcoin Jesus” as an early promoter of Bitcoin.