US Justice Dept charges Roger Ver with tax fraud

Early crypto investor ‘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 (BTC) 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, Ver allegedly took control of roughly 70,000 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.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.