Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin evangelist once known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve his long-running tax evasion case.
According to the New York Times, Mr. Ver plans to pay about $48 million in settlement, and if the terms of the agreement are met, the lawsuit will be completely dismissed.
Barr became a well-known figure in the Bitcoin industry in the early 2010s after enthusiastically promoting Bitcoin, which was still unknown. He earned the nickname “Bitcoin Jesus” because he gave away Bitcoin for free and invested in many of the industry’s first companies.
He then became a major proponent of Bitcoin Cash, a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain, which he described as “the real Bitcoin.”
The Justice Department has accused Ver of fraud, tax evasion, and filing false tax returns related to his large Bitcoin holdings.
Prosecutors say that before he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014, Ver personally and through his companies Memory Dealers and Agile Star provided false or misleading information to law firms and appraisers to conceal the true number of BTC he owned.
Related: Roger Ver arrested, charged with tax evasion | Case breakdown
According to court filings, Ver and his company held 131,000 Bitcoins in 2014.
When the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed in 2017, Ver sold tens of thousands of Bitcoins (worth about $240 million at the time) without reporting the profits to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Prosecutors said his actions “robbed the IRS” of approximately $48 million worth of taxes.
Barr was arrested in Spain in 2024 after the United States requested his extradition. The Justice Department’s Los Angeles office filed an indictment alleging that he concealed the value of his assets to avoid paying taxes before he renounced his citizenship.
When contacted by the New York Times and other news outlets, Ver reportedly declined to comment, saying: “I have more to say, but I will follow the advice of my tax attorney, as I have for decades. Unfortunately, that means ‘no comment.'”
The deal is a deferred prosecution agreement, meaning the charges will be dropped if Mr. Ver fulfills his obligations, including paying the amount in full. The settlement has not been filed in court and is subject to change pending approval by a judge. The Department of Justice did not comment on the reported transaction.
The court hearing is currently scheduled for December 15, 2025.
The settlement came during President Donald Trump’s second term, a 180-degree reversal in Washington’s attitude toward the Bitcoin industry. Under Trump, the administration has eased enforcement and reversed many of its past crackdowns.
Several prominent figures have already obtained presidential pardons, including Silk Road Market founder Ross Ulbricht and BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes.
Barr’s legal team has ties to Trump’s inner circle. According to the New York Times, he paid political strategist Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Trump, $600,000 to lobby against tax provisions related to his lawsuit.
He also hired lawyers David Schoen and Christopher Kiss, who have represented President Trump in various legal matters, and a lobbying firm led by prominent Republican fundraiser Brian Ballard.