"Bitcoin Jesus" Roger Ver rebuts IRS's tax evasion allegations

Odaily Planet Daily News BTC early investor Roger Ver (also known as “BTC Jesus”) was arrested in April this year at a cryptocurrency conference in Barcelona and is currently awaiting a Spanish judge’s decision on whether to extradite him to the United States. Ver spent a month in prison, and then was released on bail and moved to Mallorca, where he received a constant stream of visitors. He openly criticized the US government, claiming that he was persecuted by prosecutors, “They don’t like me, including my political views, and they attack me in various ways.” Ver stated that the Department of Justice ignored evidence that would have helped his defense and refuted the core premise of the prosecutor, denying any intentional deception of the IRS. He said that when the IRS’s policy on taxing Cryptocurrency sales was still uncertain, he relied on professionals to provide advice to ensure there would be no tax issues. The representative of the Ministry of Justice declined to comment. Earlier in May, Roger Ver was accused by the Department of Justice of email fraud, tax evasion, and submitting false tax returns, and was arrested in Spain on criminal charges in the United States. The United States will seek to extradite Roger Ver to face trial in the United States. Roger Ver renounced his US citizenship on February 4, 2014, and after moving abroad, US law requires him to submit tax returns, reporting the capital gains from the sale of his assets (including BTC) worldwide, and pay tax on these gains. The Department of Justice believes that Roger Ver has caused the IRS a loss of at least 48 million dollars in total.