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★ Government Action

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

Crypto DeregulationDOJ Political InterferenceWhite-Collar Enforcement Erosion

Filed October 2025$49,900,000

★ The Brief

What happened

In October 2025, the Trump Justice Department let crypto billionaire Roger Ver, indicted for nearly $50 million in tax evasion, resolve the case by paying $49.9 million with no guilty plea, no admission of fraud, and no court appearance, through a deferred-prosecution agreement.

Who enabled it

Who benefits

Deal or steal?

Ver had paid Roger Stone $600,000 to lobby against the tax law and hired Trump-tied attorney Chris Kise to press the DOJ. Career prosecutors were shut out; the deal was cut by political appointees, including Trump's former personal lawyer Todd Blanche.

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.

Actors

Who pushed it · 4

Who initiated, paid, or pushed the action.

  • Chris Kise

    As Ver's lead attorney, negotiated directly with former Trump co-counsel Blanche and Bhirud, dictated key terms of the agreement including exclusion of the word 'fraud,' and was the only Ver attorney to sign the final deal.

  • Ketan Bhirud
    Ketan Bhirud

    As Associate Deputy Attorney General overseeing the criminal tax division, negotiated the deferred prosecution agreement line by line with Ver's team, excluded career prosecutors from key meetings, and publicly announced the resolution as a DOJ success.

  • Todd Blanche
    Todd Blanche

    As Deputy Attorney General running day-to-day DOJ operations, gave his blessing to the deferred prosecution deal and directed the department's departure from its prior insistence on a guilty plea or trial.

    Todd Blanche has paid into Trump’s orbit:

  • U.S. Department of Justice
    U.S. Department of Justice

    Executed the deferred prosecution agreement, abandoning an eight-year criminal tax indictment and accepting a monetary payment in lieu of a guilty plea or prison sentence — the only tax prosecution the administration killed outright.

    U.S. Department of Justice has paid into Trump’s orbit:

Beneficiaries

Who gained · 1

Who stood to gain.

  • Roger Ver
    Roger Ver

    Avoided criminal conviction, prison, and extradition; paid $49.9 million — roughly the amount he allegedly owed in taxes in the first place — and was not required to appear in a U.S. court or admit to fraud.

Sources

Further reading