A California federal court docket is nearer to dismissing the prison indictment towards Bitcoin advocate Roger Ver, identified to many as “Bitcoin Jesus.”
In a Tuesday submitting within the US District Court docket for the Central District of California, the US authorities filed a proposed order for Decide Michael Fitzgerald to dismiss Ver’s indictment with out prejudice.
The federal government mentioned it reached an settlement with Ver to pay $49.9 million and “all tax, penalties, and curiosity” on tax liabilities with the Inside Income Service (IRS) for his Bitcoin (BTC) holdings.
The proposed dismissal got here after the US authorities filed a deferred prosecution agreement in September, laying out circumstances for Ver to have his case dismissed. Ver admitted that he had been required to file an announcement and pay taxes on sure crypto belongings earlier than renouncing his US citizenship in 2014.
The preliminary indictment, filed in April 2024, alleged that Ver falsely reported on tax kinds associated to about 131,000 BTC he managed, value $74 million in 2014. The US Justice Division mentioned Ver tried to evade paying taxes on his belongings by renouncing his US citizenship and later turning into a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis.
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“[A]s defendant admitted, when he filed his returns in Could 2016, they did ‘not report possession of all these bitcoins and didn’t report capital features from the constructive sale of all of those bitcoins,’ inflicting a loss to the USA of $16,864,105,” mentioned the Tuesday movement to dismiss.
Some crypto customers are nonetheless betting on a presidential pardon
Although the proposed movement to dismiss had but to be accredited by a federal choose on the time of this writing, the truth that it was unopposed by Ver’s legal professionals and based mostly on an settlement with prosecutors instructed that the prison case is nearing an finish.
Regardless of the Tuesday court docket improvement, bets on Ver receiving a pardon from US President Donald Trump remained on prediction platforms Polymarket and Kalshi on the time of publication, providing 17% and 19% possibilities, respectively. Polymarket’s phrases acknowledged that the guess would solely be resolved if Ver acquired “a presidential pardon, commutation, or reprieve from Donald Trump” by Dec. 31.
Ver issued a public plea to Trump in January amid his prison case, claiming he was the sufferer of “lawfare.”
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