Roger Ver Arrested in Spain After DOJ Files US Tax Fraud Charges – 8% BCH fall

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced criminal charges against Roger Ver and arrested him on April 30.

The DOJ's charges include mail fraud (involving submitting forms to three IRS addresses), tax evasion, and filing false tax returns.

On the same day, Ver was arrested by local law enforcement in Spain, while the US was seeking his extradition to stand trial.

The DOJ stated that Ver and his companies held 131,000 BTC worth USD 871 each at the end of February 2014. The companies — namely MemoryDealers and Agilestar — hold about 73,000 BTC of the total.

Tax fraud

Ver has been accused of tax evasion since he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014, then hired a law firm support him on U.S. taxes and an appraisal expert to value the two companies.

According to the DOJ, Ver provided false or misleading information about Bitcoin holdings because the law firm and appraisers "significantly low price" the companies and their BTC 73,000 holdings.

In addition, the law firm and appraiser did not report Ver's personal Bitcoin holding.

The DOJ claims that Ver owned Bitcoin of the two companies in 2017 — amounting to BTC 70,000 at the time — and later sold on exchange for about USD 240 million.

He allegedly concealed sales from his accountant and failed to report profits or pay taxes on personal tax returns that year.

Despite not being a U.S. citizen during the sale, Ver still has to file tax reports and pay certain taxes because these companies are all U.S.-based corporations.

At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) — a fork Bitcoin enthusiastically backed by Ver — is fall more than 8% and trading at 423 USD.

Source: TradingView