Roger Ver had a really good run.
He was an early Bitcoin investor. We’re talking 2011 early, when Bitcoin was still weird internet money that nobody understood. He bought thousands of them. He promoted them so relentlessly that the internet gave him a nickname: “Bitcoin Jesus.”
Then something changed.
By 2014, Ver decided he was done with America. He renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to St. Kitts and Nevis. It was supposed to be a clean break.
Except there’s a thing called the “exit tax.”
What Everyone Forgets About Leaving America
When you renounce your U.S. citizenship, you can’t just ghost the IRS. There’s a tax on your way out.
Specifically, you have to report the fair market value of all your worldwide assets and pay taxes on them as if you sold everything that day, called a “constructive sale.” For Roger Ver, this meant one thing: he needed to declare his bitcoins and pay tax on them at their 2014 value.
He didn’t.
The Cover-Up (Which Is Always Worse)
Ver allegedly hired a law firm to help with his expatriation and prepare his tax returns. He also hired an appraiser to value his companies.
Then he allegedly gave them false information.
He told them he didn’t own nearly as many bitcoins as he actually did. His two companies were said to have held about 73,000 bitcoins. He didn’t report that. He also allegedly didn’t report that he personally owned thousands more.
The law firm prepared tax returns based on this incomplete (aka fraudulent) information. Those returns got filed with the IRS. And the IRS eventually figures this stuff out.
Bitcoin Goes Supernova
By 2017, Ver’s companies still owned about 70,000 bitcoins. Then Bitcoin exploded. By November 2017, Ver reportedly sold tens of thousands of those bitcoins for approximately $240 million in cash.
Did he report this to the IRS?
Nope.
Roger Ver’s Gigantic Tab
Fast forward to October 2025. Roger Ver reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. He’s paying nearly $50 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest.
The actual tax liability alone? Over $16 million. The penalty? Over $12 million. Plus interest that’s probably making him want to cry. He’s also trying to avoid prison time, which, given that tax evasion can carry up to five years per count, is probably why he’s okay writing that check.
Bitcoin Jesus’ Parable of the Exit Tax
This isn’t a story about crypto or Bitcoin. It’s a story about expatriation taxes, which affect way more people than you’d think.
If you renounce your citizenship, you can’t outrun the IRS.
The exit tax exists specifically to prevent people like Ver from leaving and taking undeclared assets with them. You have to report everything at fair market value and pay tax on it. No exceptions. No “but I’m leaving America” loopholes.
Concealing assets is worse than owing taxes.
Ver allegedly paid accountants and lawyers to help him—then gave them false information. That’s not a mistake. That’s fraud. That’s why he ended up paying $50 million instead of just paying what he owed in the first place.
The IRS has a long memory.
Ver spent years thinking he got away with it. He didn’t. When you’re hiding $48 million from the government, it’s not a matter of if you get caught, it’s when.
If you’re planning to leave the United States or renounce your citizenship, talk to a tax professional before you do it. Not after. Not “I’ll figure it out later.” Before. Because “Bitcoin Jesus” learned the hard way that no amount of internet fame can absolve you from your taxation sins.
