Roger Ver, an early cryptocurrency investor known as the ‘Bitcoin Jesus’, has been arrested in Spain on US charges of tax evasion.

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice said that Ver had been charged with mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns and had been arrested during the weekend in Spain. The law enforcement agency said that is will seek Ver’s extradition to stand trial in the United States.

According to the indictment, Ver was required to file tax returns following the renunciation of his US citizenship in 20214 when he moved to St. Kitts and Nevis. These tax returns required him to report capital gains from the constructive sale of his world-wide assets, including the bitcoins, and to report the fair market value of his assets, along with pay a so-called “exit tax” on those capital gains.

Ver, via two companies he controlled, allegedly owned 131,000 bitcoins which, at the time, were traded at around $871 each. The DoJ said that Ver provided or caused to be provided false or misleading information to a law firm and appraiser he employed, which led to the preparation and filing of false tax returns that substantially undervalued the two companies and he bitcoins held.

The indictment further alleges that by June 2017, Ver’s two companies continued to own approximately 70,000 bitcoins. Around that time, Ver allegedly took possession of those bitcoins and in November 2017 sold tens of thousands of them on cryptocurrency exchanges for approximately $240 million in cash. Even though Ver was not then a US citizen, he was still legally required to report to the IRS and pay tax.

In total, Ver is alleged to have caused a loss to the IRS of at least $48 million.

A lawyer representing Ver said that he was “very disappointed and surprised" by the arrest and that his client “ always intended to fully comply with his US tax obligations.”

They added that Ver would plead innocent in court “if necessary.”

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