It looks like he could’ve dodged this by not making a lot of the decisions he made. It was definitely a bad move for him to wire crypto to bank accounts tied to businesses. It also looks like this became a big issue when he decided to go through expatriation, which required him to report and pay taxes for the capital gains. A law firm allegedly told him to “pretend” that he sold almost everything, leading him to not report any Bitcoin for both his assets and taxes, which seems like the ‘law firm’ was literally telling him to do fraud; he still went through with that despite how fishy it sounds? Can’t help but feel like any legal firm telling you to “pretend” anything is a scam… It seems like he brought a lot of this on himself, but it also shows how deeply the IRS will dig their claws into you if they smell a couple million dollars.
Indictment PDF: https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1350116/dl?inline
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/early-bitcoin-investor-charged-tax-fraud
This is not about the IRS smelling millions, if it was they would have gone after him years ago. This is political, the established order are terrified of the information he is spreading and activism he is engaged in.
Right after he released his very popular book called Hijacking Bitcoin on how BTC was taken over by banker interests and it’s technology crippled so it could not be used as a payment system which is far superior to banker controlled legacy currency, they pounced on him. The IRS is a criminal mafia organization, and the “income tax” is slavery by definition.
This is must see information for anyone who thinks they know something about Bitcoin, your face will melt when you find out the truth.
Hijacking Bitcoin: by Roger Ver https://odysee.com/@Pantera:f/HijackingBitcoin:7
Right, it’s not about the IRS smelling millions, it’s about him wiring crypto to businesses he owned and him not reporting it on his taxes during expatriation. It’s all in the indictment papers. Pretty bog-standard tax fraud, nothing really out of the ordinary or exciting.
Again if it was simple “tax fraud” they would had engaged him about it in less than a year after the fact. This was 10 years ago. The criminal state is using the IRS mafia and trying to retaliate against someone threatening their criminal enterprise.
Tax issues are not criminal offences, you cannot exact violence against someone because you believe they owe you money. Scumbags do this, hence the state is a scumbag cabal.
Yeah, on the one hand I agree with your sentiment, but on the other hand it’s not that simple. Nothing in the government ever moves quick, and the IRS loves to give you plenty of time to dig your own grave as deep as you want.
The article above goes into more analysis about this situation, and includes a great quote that rings to what I previously mentioned:
“Here’s a useful trick for highly affluent readers who are desperate to avoid the exit tax: Live wherever you want, but don’t renounce citizenship. The constructive sale of assets and resulting taxable gains probably aren’t worth the trouble. Above all, don’t paint yourself into a corner by renouncing your citizenship and then calculating what your exit tax will be. The benefit of performing the calculation first is that it can influence your decision as to whether renunciation is worth it.”
That is good info and advice but people have to start pointing out that the US is run by criminal thugs and they have designed an oppressive system to keep you from escaping, with immensely complex rules to make sure they can execute violence against you at a later date if they please.
Who cares
Everyone who cares about justice and freedom. Ignorant cowards certainly will not care.
Cryptobros are beneath my consideration. Begone.
