Topic: MemoryDealers aka Roger Ver Arrested! - page 3. (Read 1607 times)

Exactly, having friends in really high places would make you get away on things that would end someone if they ever get to that place. I think that him being a shill for Bitcoin Cash has anything to do with this one but I do hope that he can survive this thing because this is clearly another attack by the authorities against cryptocurrency and the community. Isn't tax fraud a bit unjustifiable being his case? Ver's been on the crypto space for a long time and this is the only time that they've done some kind of connection? Maybe if they were building a case, they would've easily done it a long time ago.

I just stumbled across this thread, and *wow* I'm blown away at the charges but somehow not entirely surprised by the alleged behavior on the part of Ver.  I'd no clue that he'd become an ex-pat, either.

But yep, taxes and all the laws regarding them are indeed crazy in the US.  However, in other countries the actual tax rates are even higher (though I don't know how complex the laws are, or how fucking hard they make it for the average person to file their taxes without resorting to expensive software or hiring an accountant).  I don't think the IRS is looking to put people in jail necessarily, but they just make doing your taxes unnecessarily difficult/costly as I just said.  The amount of money involved in this case is huge, but for "little people" who owe back taxes or get caught up in tax issues, the IRS usually settles with them in the form of a fine, penalties, whatever and they don't end up in prison.


No offense to the younger generation, but that has a lot to do with immaturity in a lot of cases--Roger Ver is an exception if he flaunted his wealth, but I have heard tell of a lot of young, crypto-wealthy people making it known on social media what their financial situation is, how rich they are, and even if they didn't get in trouble with the IRS, they got robbed.  Plus even if Ver weren't vocal about his wealth, I'm sure the IRS would have had its eyes on him anyway and they've got enough investigative power such that they don't need to resort to following his escapades online, you know?

Wise words from Frank Lopez.

These names wanted fame, champagne, chicas and flash and lambos and shiet. Now they can’t fly straight anymore. They ain’t lasting. Remember how they took Tony Montana down. Tony wasn’t a wise guy. He was greedy and stupid.

Satoshi on the other hand. He was low-key quiet. He never went off-balance. That’s how you should be doing it.

Most crypto rich people wanted to show off, wanted to be famous and now they are paying the price for their stupidity.

but you can spend it..... heres a lesson. lets use fiat as an example

soooo... if you had lots of fiat, you wouldnt like to be rich if you cant spend it.. simply because you want to be a tax evader, living in fear that spending it will get you caught..

how about realise you have alot of fiat and can afford tax and still profit, thus not play silly games and get caught and end up having your freedom taken away from you.. because all this evading crap is not you exercising your freedom, its actually causing you more trouble for yourself, limiting your freedom due to having to live in a life of fear and capture with every move you make

whether you hold alot of fiat or alot of bitcoin or alot of gold. if you cant understand proper ways to legally avoid tax, dont play the evade tax game as thats not going to give you freedom. its going to give you headaches and stress and interrupt your freedom due to the stress/fear of evading

Exactly. That's the point. You must be discreet by keeping a low profile to avoid bringing unwanted attention. Why do you think Satoshi never disclosed his identity in the first place? Because he knew of the consequences of doing so. Especially when he created an alternative to the existing monetary system. Governments would've been on his tail if he revealed his identity in the first place.

May this be a lesson to everyone involved in crypto. Never disclose who you are or what you possess. Sadly, figures like Roger Ver, Charlie Shrem, Tornado.Cash developers, and Samourai developers are ultimately paying the price. With increased government outreach/oversight, developers/founders need to remain anonymous to keep Bitcoin (and the whole crypto industry) safe. The future can't be predicted, so lets hope for the best.

not puzzling at all
many people get audited.. millions of people.. however we(the crypto community) only find newsworthy reports about crypto-fame people and when they get caught, where suddenly its a talking point.. for us

so while millions of people also go through the same audits.. only when someone that we know, who has been known to be an anti-taxer gets caught and it becomes news, do some people think its a direct target of crypto-bro's when in actual fact is there are a few thousand cases of tax evaders getting soo messed up by their aversions, that they get arrested.. but we only care to hear, note, talk and go viral the stories of crypto people and then think its a big target on us..

when in actual fact there are thousands of people evading tax, we just care about the few cases that evade tax and use bitcoin and have been loudly voicing their anti-tax stance which, foolishly put a target on them by being a loud voice about tax evasion..
dont blame crypto as cause, blame his(Ver) loud aversion to tax which got him noticed and then audited and then chased around the planet for years

its like many things.. the thing you protest the loudest becomes your own target of why you then get noticed by the thing your trying to avoid
EG privacy kings promoting anonymity are more then usually the ones that get flagged as suspicious the most and then followed the most due to their promoting of privacy tools

heres a secret.. the less you say the better

No, it's the reliance on centralized entities for exchanges that becomes obsolete.  If you engage in peer-to-peer exchanges, utilizing platforms like Bisq or reputation-based systems that enable direct communication and transactions between people, there's little room for government intervention.  The problem comes when you transact with entities like Binance, Coinbase, etc. that are required to follow regulations. 

They are clearly trying to send a message to everyone with this arrests, and they scared many people by doing that.
It's not an accident or coincidence that in short time period they arrested Tornado cash developers, Samourai devs, and some of the big names in this space like CZ and Roger ver.
I don't even think they have serious legal case against most of this people, especially with Ver who renounced his US citizenship ten years ago.

But we should trust their stupid CBDC crap will have any privacy...

I will have to repeat this quote more often:

This is slowly happening in European Union, which i somewhat touched in this thread: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--5495068.
The point is, the governments don't even have to go after developers (although they might to set an example), all they need to do is to force centralised exchanges to block/freeze coins that comes from unidentified sources, and put on them the responsibility of investigating their customers.

That's why it's crucial to have at least one bitcoin-friendly country, in which you can safely exchange coins to fiat. Otherwise the whole concept of blockchain and decentralisation becomes obsolete. It could get replaced with a spreadsheet ran by authorised entities.

The worst thing with this topic, is the comparison with Sam Bankman-Fried. It is clear that financing political parties pays-off... just compare the two judicial sentences

It is easier for a criminal to blame CZ for freezing his or her account for no reason, CZ that have helped many lost and stolen funds to be reclaimed? Are you not here when Binance helped few exchange to track stolen assest and some were recovered?

Centralized exchanges can't be trusted and I am not saying they are but Binance have helped a lot and what do you mean by paper coins? Are you one of those people that hate altcoins too? In your other post I see how you talk about privacy and its importance, it is the same thing criminals wanted all along.

Now how can you figure out which human being will use privacy for the greater good or steal from other innocent beings and try to hide their tracks using privacy features? Pray that Biden don't win the next election, all Dex will be gone, there will be no single privacy left in this space.

For all those saying that this is a war on cryptocurrencies, it is not, this war is on privacy that exists in the crypto space, to combat tax evaders and also criminals hiding under the innovation.

I am still so glad that Bitcoin has nothing to do with privacy, no one will be here today if it is, because this will rule Bitcoin off for good, it will be a good reason to believe that Bitcoin is the perfect evil currency for criminals and terrorists.

I can't say that the government should do their thing, they must hunt for criminals and the unclean in this space, this doesn't feel like a threat to me, and surely it should be for people who aren't clean enough.

If we knew who Satoshi was, we could find out if he has billion-dollar yachts. And so, it is impossible to know what and who has it or not. In addition to the well-known BTC-address of the founder, there may be others.

Problems with spending (exchanging for fiat) cryptocurrencies in the future may become quite serious phenomena (without paying taxes like Roger Ver).

Or hopes for mass adoption of bitcoin as a means of payment may simply not come true and all the wealth will get stuck in the blockchain.

The puzzling thing is, why only crypto developers are facing this? Normal developers get by without any problems at all. I think they are being very selective here.


I would argue that the remaining developers are pseudonymous at best. Anonymity implies that nobody knows a thing about you. But they do have these online aliases they use for themselves, just like Satoshi.

So should we now change his Bitcoin nickname from Bitcoin Jesus to Roger Tax Dodger? Seeing that he stopped supporting Bitcoin and also presumebly dodge taxes.

I can already see the meme changing from Roger Ver giving Bitcoin the finger to Ungle Sam giving Roger Ver the finger.  

I don't see Satoshi buying billion dollar yachts. I think most people wouldn't like to be very rich in crypto if they can't spend it.

Except for their main, original dev who got the ball rolling. The project wouldn't have gotten off the ground without him, and he's possibly one of the most well-respected people in the crypto space (I put him several notches above Roger Ver any day of the week).


Easy to say in retrospect...

That's the point. You can be anonymous without leaving any trace on the web. Only if you follow the necessary security precautions. Unfortunately, most developers and people involved in crypto don't care about their privacy/anonymity. Most of them want to attract VCs, and institutional investors just to get enough funding to "pump" their coin all the way to the moon. And the only way to do that is by revealing who they are.

If developers were anonymous, investors are going to believe the project is a scam. That's the issue. Crypto figures like Charlie Shrem, and Roger Ver are ultimately paying the price of revealing themselves to the public. Who's to say Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, and Gavin Wood are next? If everyone followed Satoshi's footsteps, crypto land would be a much better place.

Check Monero's development team.  They are anonymous since 2014.  That means you can be anonymous as long as you are not reckless. 


Depends on your OpSec.  If you use anonymous protocols like Tails, Tor and Monero, it solely depends on your potential human mistakes.  For instance, if you're a tennis player in real life, well... don't ever talk about tennis from your anonymous account.  If you have a real life nickname, don't ever use it online.  Come up with a completely new one.  Etc...

“Staying anonymous for a reasonable time” isn’t going to be enough if your are working on a project that can possibly disrupt the world.

What is reasonable? 3 months? 1 year? 10 years? How long will it take for the government to come up with a hint? Do you think we can delay the inevitable, say, for 5 years? Then what? Do jail time?

Forever anonymous is definitely what you want if you are working on a decentralized project which the government won’t like.