Jesse Eisinger
‪@jeisinger.bsky.social‬

The fugitive known as “Bitcoin Jesus” was indicted for tax evasion and facing prison.

Then he hired a “Friend of Trump.”

This is how it went down, from Avi Asher-Schapiro &
@mtredden.bsky.social

https://www.propublica.org/article/bitcoin-jesus-roger-ver-tax-evastion-friends-of-trump-doj


7:03 AM · Jan 22, 2026

Danielle del Plato for ProPublica

Regulation

How “Bitcoin Jesus” Avoided Prison, Thanks to One of the “Friends of Trump”

by Avi Asher-Schapiro and Molly Redden
January 22, 2026, 4:44 pm

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Reporting Highlights

• No Prison: Billionaire fugitive Roger Ver avoided prison by hiring a defense attorney whom DOJ prosecutors label one of the “Friends of Trump.”
• White-Collar Whitewash: The story of “Bitcoin Jesus” highlights the extent that white-collar criminal enforcement has eroded under Trump.
• Gift to Crypto: Prosecutors had hoped to make Ver a marquee example amid concerns about widespread cryptocurrency tax evasion.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

Days into President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a cryptocurrency billionaire posted a video on X to his hundreds of thousands of followers. “Please Donald Trump, I need your help,” he said, wearing a flag pin askew and seated awkwardly in an armchair. “I am an American. … Help me come home.”

The speaker, 46-year-old Roger Ver, was in fact no longer a U.S. citizen. Nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” for his early evangelism for digital currency, Ver had renounced his citizenship more than a decade earlier. At the time of his video, Ver was under criminal indictment for millions in tax evasion and living on the Spanish island of Mallorca. His top-flight legal defense team had failed around half a dozen times to persuade the Justice Department to back down. The U.S., considering him a fugitive, was seeking his extradition from Spain, and he was likely looking at prison.

Once, prosecutors hoped to make Ver a marquee example amid concerns about widespread cryptocurrency tax evasion. They had spent eight painstaking years working the case. Just nine months after his direct-to-camera appeal, however, Ver and Trump’s new Justice Department leadership cut a remarkable deal to end his prosecution. Ver wouldn’t have to plead guilty or spend a day in prison. Instead, the government accepted a payout of $49.9 million — roughly the size of the tax bill prosecutors said he dodged in the first place — and allowed him to walk away.

Ver was able to pull off this coup by taking advantage of a new dynamic inside of Trump’s Department of Justice. A cottage industry of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants with close ties to Trump has sprung up to help people and companies seek leniency, often by arguing they had been victims of political persecution by the Biden administration. In his first year, Trump issued pardons or clemency to dozens of people who were convicted of various forms of white-collar crime, including major donors and political allies. Investigations have been halted. Cases have been dropped. ... Within the Justice Department, a select club of Trump’s former personal attorneys have easy access to the top appointees, some of whom also previously represented Trump. It has become a dark joke among career prosecutors to refer to these lawyers as the “Friends of Trump.”

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