The entrepreneur and investor reaches an agreement with federal authorities to resolve the tax dispute over bitcoin.
Less than a week after initial reports of a possible deal between Roger Ver and the US government, the legal matter appears to be nearing its conclusion.
A federal court in California is preparing to dismiss the criminal charge against the entrepreneur. The turning point came on October 14, when government representatives filed a proposed order with Judge Michael Fitzgerald at the United States District Court for the Central District of California, requesting dismissal of the indictment without prejudice.
The federal administration announced that it had reached an agreement with Ver for the payment of $49.9 million, in addition to “all taxes, penalties, and interest” related to his obligations to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) arising from his bitcoin holdings.
The dismissal request follows the US government’s filing of a deferred prosecution agreement, setting the conditions under which Ver could have the charges withdrawn. The defendant acknowledged that he was required to file a declaration and pay taxes on certain digital assets before renouncing his US citizenship in 2014.
The original indictment, filed in April 2024, alleged that Ver had provided false information on tax documents concerning approximately 131,000 BTC under his control, valued at $74 million in 2014. The US Department of Justice accused the entrepreneur of attempting to evade taxes on his assets by renouncing his US citizenship and later acquiring citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
The dismissal motion states: “As defendant admitted, when he filed his returns in May 2016, they did ‘not report ownership of all these bitcoins and did not report capital gains from the constructive sale of all of these bitcoins,’ causing a loss to the United States of $16,864,105.”
Although the dismissal proposal still requires final approval from the federal judge, the fact that it was not contested by Ver’s attorneys and is based on an agreement with prosecutors suggests that the criminal case is approaching its conclusion.
