Trump DOJ drops Roger Ver tax case for $49.9M, no guilty plea

In October 2025, the Trump Justice Department resolved its criminal tax case against Roger Ver — a fugitive cryptocurrency billionaire indicted for nearly $50 million in tax evasion — through a deferred prosecution agreement. Ver was not required to plead guilty, admit to fraud, or appear in a U.S. court. He paid $49.9 million, approximately the amount prosecutors said he had originally evaded, and agreed not to violate any further laws. Career prosecutors were excluded from the final negotiations; the deal was negotiated line by line between Ver's team and DOJ political appointees Ketan Bhirud and Todd Blanche. Ver's team successfully insisted that the agreement not include the word 'fraud.' The government dropped its claim that Ver had lied on his 2017 tax return, basing the $49.9 million on the 2014 tax period plus interest and penalties. Legal experts described the outcome as without precedent for an indicted criminal tax case.