A prominent early Bitcoin (BTC) investor was arrested in Spain over the weekend for allegedly evading $50 million worth of US taxes. Roger Ver, a noted supporter of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), faces charges including mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns, according to a new announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). […]
The post Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Backer Roger Ver Arrested and Charged With Evading Nearly $50,000,000 in Taxes appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
On April 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) detained Roger Ver, a trailblazing investor in bitcoin, on accusations of tax evasion and submitting fraudulent tax returns. The following update is accompanied by a statement from Bitcoin.com regarding the allegations against the company’s founder. Bitcoin Investor Roger Ver Charged With Tax Evasion According to […]
Early crypto investor ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ faces extradition to the U.S. after being charged with evading nearly $50 million in taxes.
Officials with the United States Department of Justice announced charges against early Bitcoin (BTC) investor Roger Ver, known by many as ‘Bitcoin Jesus.’
In an April 30 notice, the Justice Department said authorities in Spain had arrested Ver based on criminal charges in the United States, including mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns. The U.S. government alleged Ver defrauded the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) out of roughly $48 million with his failure to report capital gains on his sale of Bitcoin and other assets.
According to the indictment, Ver allegedly took control of roughly 70,000 in June 2017 — before the now famous bull run — and sold many of them for $240 million. U.S. officials said they planned to extradite Ver from Spain to the United States to stand trial.
Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor, has decided to continue supporting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) over Bitcoin (BTC) despite an invitation from Blockstream CEO Adam Back to rejoin the Bitcoin community. Ver criticizes layer two blockchain solutions, like Back’s Liquid Network, as centralized or unreliable, maintaining that bitcoin cash more closely aligns with the original vision […]
Crypto entrepreneur and Bitcoin.com founder, Roger Ver, has recently unveiled the publication of a 304-page book titled “Hijacking Bitcoin: The Hidden History of BTC,” offering a fresh viewpoint that diverges from commonly accepted historical accounts. This book provides readers with an alternate perspective, challenging the traditional narratives surrounding Bitcoin’s evolution and history. Exploring Bitcoin’s History […]
Roger Ver says that Ethereum, not Bitcoin, will lead the most new users to crypto.
Early Bitcoin (BTC) investor and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) advocate Roger Ver claimed that Ethereum, not Bitcoin, will be responsible for driving the bulk of new users towards crypto.
On a May 31 episode of the Show Me The Crypto podcast, Ver — labeled “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early Bitcoin advocacy — said that despite Ethereum’s scaling issues and the other layer-one “clones” that have popped up in its wake, the Ethereum ecosystem is still where the action is:
“Even though Ethereum doesn’t have the biggest market cap compared to Bitcoin, I think Ethereum is the front-runner in terms of driving worldwide adoption.”
Ver praised the rise of Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible (EVM) blockchains and layer-2 scaling solutions such as Polygon (MATIC) that can help share some of the load away from the main chain.
Ver provides an account of the “civil war” that occurred in the early days of Bitcoin between Etheruem’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Bitcoin core developers.
Disagreements over the use of smart contracts and moving away from the idea of blockchains being used purely as currency or stores of value eventually drove Buterin to develop Ethereum, Ver noted:
“All of that would have been built on top of Bitcoin if not for the scaling civil war that happened. These Bitcoin core developers hate Vitalik, and they basically drove him from the project to go and create Ethereum, and more power to him for that.”
Ver also spoke on the recent Ledger debate, calling the controversial Recover service “disappointing.” The service allows users to store their encrypted seed phase with external custodians to safeguard against loss; Ver said that while it’s fine for people to have custodial accounts and choose to recover their keys if they wish, the ethos of crypto is centered on having full control of your assets at all times.
Related: Hybrid rollups: The silver bullet for scalability and security on Ethereum
In January, Ver was sued by a trading unit of the crypto lending firm Genesis for failing to pay some $20.8 million in unsettled crypto options.
Ver claimed in a January Reddit post that he had “sufficient funds” to pay the outstanding sum but argued that because Genesis was no longer solvent, he was not legally required to uphold his end of the deal.
On the topic of #Genesis: https://t.co/2a0fYu5P3E pic.twitter.com/a6tA0HISMo
— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) January 25, 2023
Last year, Ver made headlines for allegations of defaulting on a debt. CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb claimed Ver owed the firm $47 million USD Coin (USDC) and was bound by a written contract. On June 28, Ver denied these claims without directly mentioning the company.
Magazine: Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum — Can we fix it?
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) advocate and veteran of the crypto space Roger Ver is being sued by bankrupt lender Genesis for allegedly failing to settle options trades. According to a filing at the New York State Supreme Court, Ver has 20 days to answer a complaint from Genesis regarding his alleged failure to settle $20 million […]
The post Bitcoin Cash Backer Roger Ver Sued for $20,000,000 by Bankrupt Crypto Broker Genesis appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Roger Ver, commonly known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” has 20 days to answer the summons from Genesis unit GGC International before being required to pay by default.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) advocate Roger Ver has sued by a unit of crypto lending firm Genesis over unsettled crypto options amounting to $20.8 million.
GGC International, a part of the bankrupt crypto lender, filed the suit against Ver in the New York State Supreme Court on Jan. 23, claiming that the BCH proponent has failed to settle crypto options transactions that expired back on Dec. 30.
Ver was given a total of 20 days to answer the summons. Should the BCH advocate fail to answer within that time frame, he will be obliged to pay the total amount by default. At the time of writing, the BCH proponent has not yet responded to the case.
The Genesis website states that GGC International is a company based in the British Virgin Islands. The firm is owned by Genesis Bermuda Holdco Limited, under Genesis Global Holdco, an entity included in the bankruptcy filing.
Roger Ver had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment at the time of writing.
Last year, Ver also made headlines for allegations of defaulting on a debt. CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb claimed that Ver owes the firm $47 million USD Coin (USDC) and was bound by a written contract. On June 28, Ver also denied these claims without directly mentioning the company.
Related: Genesis bankruptcy case scheduled for first hearing
On Jan. 20, the crypto lender filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. The firm began a court-supervised restructuring to move the business forward. The process will be led by a special committee that aims to provide an outcome that is optimal for both Genesis clients and Gemini Earn users.
Meanwhile, Genesis creditors are setting their sights on Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of Genesis Global. On Jan. 24, Genesis creditors filed a securities class action lawsuit against DCG and its founder and CEO, Barry Silbert. The creditors alleged that the firm violated federal securities laws by offering unregistered securities.
“The use of the designation "VERSE" constitutes an infringement of our client's trademarks under German trademark law,” Block’s legal counsel said in a letter to Bitcoin.com.
Digital payments company Block Inc. is pursuing legal action against Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com over alleged trademark infringement involving its newly launched Verse token, which concluded a $33.6 million private sale in May 2022.
In a letter addressed to Bitcoin.com CEO Dennis Jarvis and the company’s legal counsel Joseph Collement, lawyers representing Block claimed that Bitcoin.com’s use of “Verse” constituted trademark infringement under German trademark law. The letter, dated Aug. 10, 2022, was a follow-up to a July 4, 2022 notice in which Block’s legal counsel, Bird & Bird, first laid out its trademark infringement case in Germany. A person familiar with the matter shared the letter with Cointelegraph.
The alleged trademark violation stems from Block’s acquisitions of Verse Technologies Inc. and Decentralized Global Payments S.L. in 2020. “The portfolio of Verse and Decentralized also included a peer-to-peer payment app under the name "VERSE". Since the takeover, our client has been operating this app,” the letter read.
Block’s legal counsel explained that the “VERSE” app is available in Europe, including Germany, and can be accessed on both Apple and Android devices. The letter detailed Block’s rights over a figurative mark that contains the word “Verse” as well as the “VERSE” word mark, with priority for computer and application software for mobile devices.
“The use of the designation "VERSE" constitutes an infringement of our client's trademarks under German trademark law,” the letter concluded, adding:
“Our client therefore has claims against you to cease and desist from the infringing acts. Furthermore, our client has claims for information about the scope of the infringing acts as well as claims for compensation for all damages that our client has incurred or will incur as a result of the infringement. Finally, our client is also entitled to reimbursement of the costs incurred by us in connection with this letter.”
Block’s legal counsel requested that Bitcoin.com sign a declaration of discontinuance and undertaking by Aug. 17, 2022, or face further legal action. It also requested that Bitcoin.com “cease and desist” its Verse token operations in the European Union or face a contractual penalty of $10,400 (€10,000) “for each case of contravention.” Block also requested to be reimbursed for legal fees of $3,906.54 (€3,744.50).
Bitcoin.com is owned by early Bitcoin (BTC) investor Roger Ver, who served as CEO until Aug. 1, 2019. Bitcoin.com operates a digital asset exchange and wallet and provides daily news on the cryptocurrency market. Many in the crypto community know Ver for his strong support of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which emerged in 2017 after departing Bitcoin’s original blockchain due to philosophical differences around scalability and transaction speed. However, its supporters believe BCH aligns more with the vision set out for Bitcoin in Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 white paper.
Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, Block rebranded from Square in December 2021 as its focus shifted to blockchain technology and Bitcoin. Dorsey has increasingly focused on Bitcoin hardware and payment solutions since stepping down as Twitter CEO in November 2021.
Related: Get your money back: The weird world of crypto litigation
Ver and Dorsey have been involved in personal disputes over the years, including in 2019 when Ver accused Dorsey of supporting Lightning Network because of his alleged romantic involvement with Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark. Some have speculated that these personal issues are why Twitter never verified Bitcoin.com’s handle when Dorsey was CEO.
My theory for why @jack is so irrationally hot for #LightningNetwork is because he has / had a romantic relationship with @starkness, the CEO of @lightning
— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) August 10, 2019
The Verse token at the heart of the legal dispute is publicly advertised on Bitcoin.com’s Twitter page. Verse is described by its creators as a “cross-chain token” focused on expanding into low-fee Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains. It has a fixed supply of 210 billion tokens distributed over seven years. Its private sale, which concluded this past May, raised $33.6 million.
