「比特幣耶穌」羅傑·維爾因逃稅指控面臨引渡到美國

對於他的追隨者來說，羅傑·維爾被稱為“比特幣耶穌”，他是一位富有魅力的加密貨幣倡導者，以破紀錄的收益再次吸引了投資者。

Roger Ver, a prominent early crypto investor and advocate, is facing a new kind of legal battle: US prosecutors charged him with evading more than $48 million in taxes for selling $240 million in tokens.

Roger Ver 是一位著名的早期加密貨幣投資者和倡導者，他正面臨一場新的法律鬥爭：美國檢察官指控他因出售 2.4 億美元的代幣而逃稅超過 4800 萬美元。

The case, filed this year, is the first to focus solely on tax fraud and digital-asset sales. Prosecutors typically tack on tax charges to crypto cases for crimes like money laundering, ransomware attacks and investor scams.

該案件於今年提起，是第一起專門針對稅務詐欺和數位資產銷售的案件。檢察官通常會對洗錢、勒索軟體攻擊和投資者詐騙等加密貨幣案件追加稅務指控。

Ver, 45, is awaiting a Spanish judge’s decision on whether he must be extradited to America after his April arrest in Barcelona while attending a crypto conference. The US expatriate spent a month in jail before getting out on bail and moving to Mallorca. An outspoken critic of the US government, he said he’s being persecuted by prosecutors.

45 歲的 Ver 於 4 月在巴塞隆納參加加密貨幣會議時被捕，目前正在等待西班牙法官就他是否必須被引渡到美國做出決定。這名美國僑民在監獄裡待了一個月，然後獲得保釋並搬到馬略卡島。作為美國政府的直言不諱的批評者，他表示自己正在受到檢察官的迫害。

“They don’t like me, and they don’t like my political views, and they just came at me every which way,” Ver told Bloomberg News in an exclusive interview in late October.

「他們不喜歡我，也不喜歡我的政治觀點，他們只是從各個方面來攻擊我，」維爾在 10 月底的一次獨家採訪中告訴彭博新聞社。

Ver said the Justice Department has ignored evidence that helps his defense and refutes a central premise by prosecutors – that he intended to cheat the IRS. Rather, he said, he relied on professionals who advised him when IRS policy on taxing crypto sales was unsettled.

維爾表示，司法部忽視了有助於他辯護的證據，並駁斥了檢察官的一個核心前提——他打算欺騙美國國稅局。相反，他說，當美國國稅局對加密貨幣銷售徵稅的政策尚未確定時，他依賴專業人士為他提供建議。

“I instructed all my tax attorneys and preparers, ‘We need to do everything perfectly because I don’t want any problem with the IRS at all,”’ Ver said. “That was their instructions the whole time.”

「我指示所有稅務律師和報稅員，『我們需要完美地完成每件事，因為我根本不想與國稅局發生任何問題，』」維爾說。 “這一直是他們的指示。”

A Justice Department representative declined to comment.

司法部代表拒絕置評。

The seeds of Ver’s legal peril lay in his success as an early crypto investor — long before the latest Bitcoin rally fueled by Donald Trump’s US presidential win. They center on his representations to the IRS and the agency’s reconstruction of his holdings.

Ver 法律風險的根源在於他作為早期加密貨幣投資者的成功——早在唐納德·川普贏得美國總統推動的最新比特幣上漲之前。他們的重點是他向美國國稅局的陳述以及該機構對其資產的重建。

Ver grew up in Silicon Valley, founding a computer company called MemoryDealers at the precocious age of 19. He also engaged in tax protests and ran for California’s legislature at 21 as a libertarian.

Ver 在矽谷長大，在 19 歲時早熟地創立了一家名為 MemoryDe​​​​alers 的電腦公司。

In 2001, he pleaded guilty to dealing explosives without a license. (Ver says he simply sold firecrackers on eBay.) He served 10 months in prison, which hardened his attitude toward the US government. He left America in 2006, moving to Japan. He focused on building MemoryDealers and another firm, Agilestar, which sold optical transceivers.

2001年，他承認無照經營爆炸物罪。 （Ver 說他只是在 eBay 上賣鞭炮。）他在監獄裡服刑 10 個月，這使他對美國政府的態度變得更強硬。他於2006年離開美國，移居日本。他專注於建立 MemoryDe​​alers 和另一家銷售光收發器的公司 Agilestar。

When crypto began, he embraced its promise for transferring wealth without government interference. He started buying Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $1, touting it at barbecues, parties, and everywhere else. Intense and fast talking, he spread the vision of using crypto to buy a sandwich or even a car. When Bitcoin hit it big, Ver touted its potential from conference stages.

當加密貨幣開始出現時，他欣然接受了在沒有政府乾預的情況下轉移財富的承諾。他從 2011 年開始以不到 1 美元的價格購買比特幣，並在燒烤、聚會和其他地方兜售比特幣。他的談話激烈而快速，傳播了使用加密貨幣購買三明治甚至汽車的願景。當比特幣大受歡迎時，Ver 在會議舞台上宣傳了它的潛力。

He co-founded Blockchain.com, a crypto company once valued at $14 billion, and was an early investor in payment processor BitPay and digital-asset firm Ripple. When the Bitcoin network underwent a software upgrade he opposed in 2017, Ver broke with the community, switching to a split-off called Bitcoin Cash. He said his current holdings include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Zeno.

他是 Blockchain.com 的共同創辦人，這是一家估值曾高達 140 億美元的加密貨幣公司，也是支付處理商 BitPay 和數位資產公司 Ripple 的早期投資者。 2017 年，當比特幣網路進行了他反對的軟體升級時，Ver 與社群決裂，轉而使用名為比特幣現金的分拆方案。他表示，目前持有的資產包括比特幣、比特幣現金、以太幣和芝諾。

Despite his notoriety, Ver decided in 2014 to renounce his US citizenship, later becoming a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis. US citizens who expatriate and are worth more than $2 million must report their worldwide assets to the IRS, and pay an exit tax based on their asset sales.

儘管聲名狼藉，維爾還是在 2014 年決定放棄美國公民身份，後來成為聖基茨和尼維斯公民。移居海外且身價超過 200 萬美元的美國公民必須向 IRS 報告其全球資產，並根據其資產出售情況繳納出境稅。

As he planned to expatriate, prosecutors allege, Ver hid the number and value of Bitcoin he owned and controlled personally and through MemoryDealers and Agilestar, his California-based companies.

檢察官稱，當他計劃移居國外時，Ver 隱瞞了他個人以及透過位於加州的公司 MemoryDe​​alers 和 Agilestar 擁有和控制的比特幣的數量和價值。

The IRS used blockchain analysis to determine that by early 2014, Ver and his companies owned about 131,000 Bitcoin trading between $782 and $960, according to the indictment — more than he reported in tax filings. He’s accused of tax evasion, wire fraud, and filing a false tax return.

根據起訴書，美國國稅局利用區塊鏈分析確定，到2014 年初，Ver 和他的公司擁有約131,000 枚比特幣，交易價格在782 美元至960 美元之間——比他在稅務申報中報告的還要多。他被指控逃稅、電匯詐欺和提交虛假納稅申報表。

Ver worked with a law firm and appraisers on the exit tax, but gave them false or misleading information about his Bitcoin holdings, and an exit tax return filed in 2016 failed to report the Bitcoin he owned personally and underreported the value of his companies, prosecutors charge.

檢察官表示，Ver 與一家律師事務所和評估師就退出稅事宜進行了合作，但向他們提供了有關其持有的比特幣的虛假或誤導性信息，而2016 年提交的退出納稅申報表未能報告他個人擁有的比特幣，並少報了其公司的價值收費。

The indictment also alleges Ver “fraudulently misrepresented and concealed” from the IRS the crypto that his companies sold in 2017 for about $240 million.

起訴書還指控 Ver 向國稅局「欺詐性地歪曲和隱瞞」其公司在 2017 年以約 2.4 億美元的價格出售的加密貨幣。

Ver disputes this characterization, but declined to discuss the indictment further or elaborate on his crypto holdings with Bloomberg.

Ver 對這種描述提出異議，但拒絕進一步討論起訴書或與彭博社詳細說明他持有的加密貨幣。

A website, freerogernow.org, is linked to Ver’s personal website and encourages supporters to sign an open letter calling on the US government to end his “unjust

一個網站 freerogernow.org 連結到 Ver 的個人網站，並鼓勵支持者簽署一封公開信，呼籲美國政府結束他的「不公正行為」。