Bitcoin Cash (BCH) pioneer and early crypto adopter Roger Ver is asking courts to dismiss an indictment that charges him with evading $50 million in taxes.
Ver, an early investor of Bitcoin (BTC) who later decided to support the BCH fork, was arrested in Spain in late April at the direction of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Ver faces multiple charges, including mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
Despite renouncing his United States citizenship in 2014 after obtaining citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis, authorities say Ver should’ve filed tax returns that reported capital gains from the sale of his worldwide assets, including his Bitcoin, and reported the fair market value of his assets – essentially paying an exit tax.
Now, lawyers for Ver are asking the court to dismiss the indictment, citing government overreach.
Ver tells FOX Business that by including his correspondence with attorneys in the most recent court filing, he hopes to provide the rationale for his actions and show the public and the Trump administration that he was not trying to flout the law as authorities allege.
Says Ver,
“I always knew I’d be a political target for the IRS and law enforcement after I expatriated… That’s why I made sure to hire the most reputable attorneys and accountants and gave them clear instructions to file everything perfectly — so there’d be no issues when the inevitable audit came. But of course, the IRS still found a way to make it a problem anyhow.”
Lawyers also note that laws and regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies were convoluted and nearly non-existent at the time of Ver’s alleged offense.
Say the lawyers,
“The government’s charges against Roger Ver rely on violations of his rights; misleading, selective quotations of communications presented to the grand jury; and, fundamentally, on the false and anachronistic pretense that U.S. tax rules provided meaningful guidance to those who, like Ver, were among the pioneers in the now-mainstream cryptocurrency economy.”
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