Roger Ver’s Trump pardon plea: ‘Lawfare’ victim or tax evader?
2025-01-29
Category: None

Early Bitcoin adopter Roger Ver has launched a social media campaign pleading with US President Donald Trump to pardon his tax evasion and mail fraud charges, claiming he is the victim of “lawfare” — just like recently pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and Trump himself.
Currently awaiting extradition to the US, Ver says he faces “109 years” behind bars for crimes he did not commit. In his view, US authorities unjustly pursued him.
However, crypto proponents appear divided over whether Ver deserves a pardon. Some argue he did commit these crimes and that his character is what makes him worthy of the sheer size of the punishment.
“No one deserves to spend life in prison for tax evasion,” one X user wrote. “But Roger has definitely earned it.”
Tesla founder Elon Musk feels that Ver’s denouncement of his US citizenship makes him unworthy of a pardon. “Roger Ver gave up his US citizenship. No pardon for Ver,” he posted on Jan. 26. In the moments that followed, the Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD founder’s odds of a pardon plummeted on prediction market Polymarket.
Since then, Ver has released several videos maintaining his innocence and calling upon Trump to pardon him, creating a fierce divide between his supporters and those who feel that Ver’s claims are all for show.
Roger Ver and the case for lawfare 
Ver’s Jan. 26 video features dramatized scenes of police sirens, American flags and Ver pining for America from a Spanish apartment. The so-called “Bitcoin Jesus” says he was “born an American. I am an American. And I will die as an American.”
But he isn’t an American, at least not on paper.
Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 for a St. Kitts and Nevis passport, citing ideological concerns with the American government. 
High-net-worth individuals who give up their US citizenship are subject to a so-called “exit tax” on the value of their assets and businesses. Ver, with his substantial Bitcoin BTCUSD holdings and businesses, met this threshold.
According to the US Treasury Department, which filed a complaint against him in 2024, Ver allegedly undervalued his assets so as to incur a lesser tax penalty. In doing so, he has been accused of attempting to commit tax and mail fraud. The Treasury also claims that firms he owned and operated within the United States, even after leaving, did not pay proper tax.
In a second video, which he released on Jan. 27, Ver claims that the case is not a matter of tax fraud but of political and ideological persecution perpetrated by agents of the US government. 
He contends that “lawfare” is to blame for the current charges against him and his past stint in federal prison, and that it’s even the true reason behind his expatriation a decade ago.
Ver asserts that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) developed a personal vendetta against him after he criticized the ATF and FBI for the bloody Waco siege against the Branch Davidians in 1993. Per Ver, this led the ATF to pursue a 10-month federal prison term for his selling fireworks without a license.
Fear over further persecution from government officials — i.e., lawfare — led Ver to renounce his citizenship and seek to move abroad.
Ver spent the following years as an outspoken crypto advocate. Bitcoin’s ability to facilitate transactions with no central intermediary, and Ver’s eagerness to evangelize it far and wide, once again grabbed the attention of the government, who wished to suppress these findings, he claims.
He said:
Ver’s Bitcoin advocacy, he contends, once again made him a target, this time under the guise of the tax and mail fraud charges against him. 
The timing and nature of Ver’s plea coincide with President Trump commuting Ulbricht’s sentence. In numerous replies to his videos on X, Ver’s supporters drew comparisons between him and Ulbricht, saying that if Trump is serious about doing justice to victims of government overreach, he will pardon Ver.
But while the “Free Ross” and “Free Roger” campaigns may look similar at first glance, there are important differences.
Ver does not an Ulbricht make
By the time Trump pardoned him, Ulbricht had already spent a decade of a life sentence in prison. The stakes were high.
Ver, by contrast, has not yet been extradited to the United States and hasn’t seen his first day in court. The 109-year figure claimed by Ver’s PR team — if it is to be believed — appears to be the maximum sentence he could face if found guilty on all counts. Sentencing wouldn’t occur until the conclusion of the trial, and only if Ver is convicted.
Ulbricht also had support from outside the relatively small crypto community. His case was part of the US’ wildly unpopular drug policy. Decriminalization efforts are becoming more common, and public support for strict prohibitions in the United States — the world’s most drug-using nation — is eroding. 
Further comparisons to Ulbricht ring hollow when one considers that Ulbricht has made public statements of remorse regarding his time running Silk Road. Ver, conversely, seems intent on denying any wrongdoing, going so far as to blame the entire US government for his problems.
The lawfare argument also falls flat if one considers that Ver could likely avoid going to prison by simply cutting a check.
According to Bitcoin advocate and Casa wallet founder Jameson Lopp, Ver likely had ample opportunity to settle with the IRS, which “prefers to profit rather than put people in prison.” He noted that MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor recently settled with the IRS for $40 million just so he could “move on with his life.” 
Ver could be refusing to pay simply out of principle. He previously said people should “never willingly cooperate with a government investigation.”
Lopp suggested that maybe Ver just doesn’t have the cash:
What are Ver’s chances of getting a pardon?
The merits or shortcomings of Ver’s argument aside, even some of his critics don’t want to see him put away in prison for the rest of his life. 
Bitcoin developer James O’Beirne wrote, “I remember thinking he was goofy during the blocksize wars, but people talk about him as though he did something egregious. If so, what?”
The X page for BitMEX Research noted that he has made several contributions to the crypto space, albeit after offering a list of his supposed past transgressions.
Lopp, who called Ver’s story a “political persecution ploy,” said he hopes Ver beats the case, “But I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Indeed, betting markets like Polymarket don’t seem convinced Ver will get a pardon. At publishing time, the market puts him at just a 14% chance of getting a pardon in Trump’s first 100 days.