Early crypto investor Roger Ver, a.ok.a. ‘Bitcoin Jesus,’ has been charged with a tax fraud, with the Division of Justice saying he evaded almost $50 million in taxes.
In an indictment filed in federal court docket in Los Angeles, 45-year-old Ver is charged with mail fraud and tax evasion. The DOJ said that the indictment was unsealed after his arrest in Spain over the weekend, and the U.S. authorities are in search of his extradition.
Ver earned the nickname “Bitcoin Jesus” on account of his early investments in cryptocurrency and his tendency to preach about it. Born in California, Ver renounced his US citizenship in February 2014 to grow to be a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis, a dual-island nation situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
In keeping with the indictment, Ver didn’t report the 131,000 Bitcoins he owned in 2014 when he renounced his citizenship. Utilizing this technique, Ver is alleged to have prevented taxes, underrepresented his Bitcoin holdings, and evaded taxes. For the time being, Bitcoin is buying and selling at round $57,000, which implies Ver’s 131,000 Bitcoins are price about $7.5 billion.
Ver’s indictment comes a day after cryptocurrency trade Binance founder Changpeng Zhao who pleaded guilty last year to money laundering, acquired a four-month jail sentence. Beforehand, Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the FTX crypto exchange, was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
This text initially appeared on Quartz.