{"id":26640,"date":"2024-05-02T21:34:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T21:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=26640"},"modified":"2024-05-06T14:09:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T14:09:56","slug":"regulatory-clarity-roger-ver-tax-charges-cz-sentenced-avi-eisenberg-convicted-and-charged-again-crypto-mixers-go-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2024\/05\/02\/regulatory-clarity-roger-ver-tax-charges-cz-sentenced-avi-eisenberg-convicted-and-charged-again-crypto-mixers-go-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulatory clarity: Roger Ver tax charges, CZ sentenced, Avi Eisenberg convicted and charged again, crypto mixers go down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By <\/span><\/i><b><i>Amy Castor<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><\/i><b><i>David Gerard<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you like this post, please <\/span><b><i>tell at least one other person<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It really helps!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Send us money! Here\u2019s<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/amycastor\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Amy\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Patreon and here\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. For casual tips, here\u2019s<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ko-fi.com\/amycastor\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amy\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ko-Fi and here\u2019s<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/A1529D5\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David has<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/11\/26\/get-signed-copies-of-libra-shrugged-and-attack-of-the-50-foot-blockchain\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> signed author copies of his books<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for sale.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We still have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bitcoin-it-cant-be-that-stupid.png\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBitcoin: It Can\u2019t Be That Stupid<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d stickers for patrons! Message one of us and ask!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sign up on<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Amy\u2019s blog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to see every new post she makes as it goes up, and<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/#byemail\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> click here and enter your email address<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for every new post on David\u2019s blog as it goes up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;There is always a weird solution to every crypto problem, complicated, Turing complete, and gives your money away to a third party.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2014 lowmagnet<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/06\/29\/coinflex-gets-roger-verified\/roger-verified\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-23281\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23281\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/roger-verified.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/roger-verified.png 680w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/roger-verified-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/roger-verified-348x215.png 348w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>I\u2019m Roger Ver, long-time bitcoin advocate and investor. Today I\u2019m at the Roger Ver world headquarters in custody.<\/h3>\n<p>Roger Ver is a bitcoin old-timer. Back in the early days, he branded himself \u201cBitcoin Jesus\u201d and evangelized bitcoin as hard as possible. He helped out the Mt. Gox exchange a lot when it had problems. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UP1YsMlrfF0\"><i>YouTube<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Ver got a little fancy with his accounting. The DOJ has now charged him with evading $48 million in taxes. Ver messed around on his expatriation exit taxes, then didn\u2019t pay capital gains taxes on bitcoins he had sold in 2017. He was arrested in Spain over the weekend. The US is currently seeking his extradition. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/early-bitcoin-investor-charged-tax-fraud\"><i>Press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/media\/1350116\/dl?inline\"><i>indictment<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The indictment is comedy gold. You need to read it. It\u2019s the precise thing you would expect from a rich and successful libertarian who suddenly decides he knows more about tax laws than his own lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>Ver founded Memory Dealers in 1999 \u2014 an e-commerce site that resold liquidated computer inventory from failed dotcoms. He also founded Agilestar, a similar business. He used both firms to invest heavily in bitcoin starting in April 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Doing business as Bitcoinstore.com, Memory Dealers also accepted payment in BTC, starting in 2012. In the same year, Ver began making plans to renounce his US citizenship and thus no longer be liable for US taxes.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2014, Ver became a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis \u2014\u00a0the only country he could find that would take him.<\/p>\n<p>But expatriation has tax consequences! The Internal Revenue Code required property to be treated as having been sold for fair market value on the day before expatriation.<\/p>\n<p>Ver\u2019s lawyers warned him that this was a huge deal:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201c&#8230; you are diving off the high dive into the pool without checking how much water is in the pool. Meaning \u2014 when you renounce you have committed yourself and whatever the tax results are, they are. No adjustments are possible.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ver failed to report the 131,000 BTC he owned \u2014 worth about $78.6 million in February 2014. Instead, he tried to play cat-and-mouse games with <i>his own tax professionals:<\/i><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A year later, when Law Firm 1 was preparing defendant VER\u2019s expatriation-related tax returns, Return Preparer 1 e-mailed defendant VER on or about April 10, 2015, requesting additional information about defendant VER\u2019s assets. Return Preparer 1 asked defendant VER how many bitcoins defendant VER owned and what he had paid for them. When he responded a few days later, defendant VER did not provide the requested information and instead discussed various aspects of the bitcoin market.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ver apparently knew more about tax law than his own lawyers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In August 2015, Lawyer 1 also asked defendant VER about his personal bitcoin holdings, specifically about how he had come to own bitcoins through bitcoinstore.com. Defendant VER responded that MemoryDealers \u201ckept as many of the bitcoins as possible.\u201d In response to Lawyer 1\u2019s follow-up questions, defendant VER remarked that bitcoin wallets \u201cwere not registered to any name or associated with a tax id, and that no one, including the IRS, can freeze ones [sic] bitcoin accounts or seize ones [sic] bitcoins.\u201d Defendant VER also asserted that all the bitcoins obtained from \u201cMemoryDealers\/Bitcoinstore were held in bitcoin wallets that only [he was] able to access.\u201d Defendant VER stated that he believed a \u201csmart tax strategy would be for [the bitcoins] to have been transferred to [his] personal ownership whenever it would have been cheapest to have done so from a tax perspective.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ver\u2019s agents continued to press Ver on how many BTC he owned and the fair value of the bitcoins as of his expatriation date. He continued to supply them with non-answers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Also on or about October 14, 2015, Return Preparer 1 e-mailed defendant VER and requested once again that he provide the total number of bitcoins he owned on February 4, 2014. Return Preparer 1 copied Lawyer 1 on the e-mail. Yet again, defendant VER did not tell them how many bitcoins he had. He instead asked, \u201c[c]ompletely hypothetically speaking, what would the ramifications be if I were to have had 200,000 [bitcoins] at the time of my renunciation?\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When Appraiser 1 (a large accounting firm) asked Ver how many BTC he owned in February 2014, Ver switched to Appraiser 2 (a solo operator):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While Law Firm 1 was preparing defendant VER\u2019s expatriation-related tax returns, it reminded defendant VER of his need to obtain valuations of MemoryDealers and Agilestar. Instead of returning to Appraiser 1, who had already prepared draft valuations, in June 2015 defendant VER retained Appraiser 2 to start the process anew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lawyer 1 advised Ver to get an appraisal from a third party.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A week later, defendant VER asked Appraiser 2 if Appraiser 2 could provide a valuation for \u201can amount of Bitcoins as of Feb 4th 2014 in an illiquid market?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a follow-up e-mail, defendant VER asked if Appraiser 2 could assist, stating \u201cI actually have all the information you need to make it super easy for you. I would just need to explain it all, and then you would affix your name to it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ver will likely have another chance to \u201cexplain it all\u201d \u2014 to a judge, who may have less patience for these games.<\/p>\n<h3>4 (months)<\/h3>\n<p>Binance founder Changpeng \u201cCZ\u201d Zhao was sentenced to four months behind bars by Judge Richard Jones of the Western District of Washington. Prosecutors wanted 36 months, the defense wanted no jail but just probation, and the probation officer recommended five months. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-04-30\/binance-founder-changpeng-zhao-gets-four-months-in-prison\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/XiXOI\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Like many others, we were shocked at how short the sentence was. Elizabeth Lopatto of The Verge, who attended the hearing, suggests that CZ sang like a bird. \u201cI was struck by repeated references to a sealed matter and significant emphasis on the word \u2018cooperation.\u2019\u2019\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/5\/1\/24145736\/binance-cz-changpeng-zhao-plea-agreement\"><i>The Verge<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The defense\u2019s sentencing memorandum has a long redacted section from pages 17 to 21 of the PDF that we would guess is about this. PDF page 29 talks about Binance helping US regulators with \u201cother major high-risk entities\u201d \u2014 that is, other than the entity that all the redacted details are about. Wonder which high-risk crypto entity that might be. [<a href=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/documents\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/rvJ2rk_6NP5c\/v0\"><i>Doc 81<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>David was quoted in Crypto News on the sentencing. [<a href=\"https:\/\/crypto.news\/too-harsh-or-too-lenient-changpeng-zhaos-sentence-divides-opinion\/\"><i>Crypto News<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>What are you gonna do, jail me?<\/h3>\n<p>A Manhattan jury unanimously found <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2024\/04\/15\/crypto-is-going-sideways-avi-eisenberg-trial-begins-uniswap-gets-a-wells-notice-bitfinex-securities-in-el-salvador\/\">Mango Markets exploiter<\/a> Avi Eisenberg guilty of three counts of fraud and manipulation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 29. Eisenberg faces a maximum of 10 years on the commodities fraud and manipulation counts and 20 years on the wire fraud count. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/man-convicted-110m-cryptocurrency-scheme\"><i>Justice Department<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Eisenberg\u2019s lawyer Brian Klein failed to impress the jury with his explanation of the technology behind the DeFi trades: \u201cSomewhere in the thick of Klein&#8217;s explanation of smart contracts, a juror fell asleep.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/04\/18\/avi-eisenberg-convicted-crypto-defi-mango-markets\"><i>Axios<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/TW340\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-04-18\/crypto-trader-convicted-in-110-million-haul-from-mango-markets\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/h5oKE\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The government also added a charge of &#8220;possession of child pornography&#8221; in a court filing on April 3 \u2014 made public on April 26. FBI agents discovered the illegal porn <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/09\/04\/crypto-collapse-tethers-new-bank-britannia-binance-woes-nobody-uses-paypals-stablecoin-avi-eisenberg-is-not-getting-his-phones-back\/\">on Eisenberg\u2019s phone and laptop<\/a> in January 2023 when he was taken into custody. This could add 10 years to Eisenberg\u2019s sentence. [<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nysd.620227\/gov.uscourts.nysd.620227.1.0.pdf\"><i>Charges<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<h3>Crackdown on mixers: Samourai Wallet busted<\/h3>\n<p>Until very recently, Samourai Wallet was a crypto mixer. Its co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill are now behind bars. The DOJ has accused them of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitter. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/founders-and-ceo-cryptocurrency-mixing-service-arrested-and-charged-money-laundering\"><i>Press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/media\/1349321\/dl\"><i>complaint<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez was arrested in Pennsylvania and Hill was arrested in Portugal, where he is currently awaiting extradition to the US. Samourai Wallet\u2019s servers and website were also seized on April 24.<\/p>\n<p>Samourai Wallet had been in operation since 2015. The feds say it &#8220;facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering transactions from illegal dark web markets,&#8221; such as Silk Road and Hydra, and 80,000 BTC ($2 billion) in \u201cunlawful transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez and Hill blatantly (and stupidly) encouraged the illegal use of their service. At one point, they tweeted: \u201cWelcome new Russian oligarch Samourai Wallet users.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamouraiWallet\/status\/1542533704635015168\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>The rest of the wallets<\/h3>\n<p>The US has been coming down hard on crypto mixers, which are obvious money laundering machines. <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/01\/21\/crypto-collapse-genesis-bankrupt-coindesk-for-sale-bankman-fried-attacks-ftx-lawyers\/\">Bitzlato was busted<\/a> in January 2023. Tornado Cash was <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/08\/09\/us-sanctions-tornado-cash-and-crypto-shrieks-in-horror\/\">blacklisted<\/a> in August 2022, and its founders were arrested a year later.<\/p>\n<p>Other crypto transmitters \u2014 mixers or not \u2014 are finally taking notice. zkSNACKs, the company behind Wasabi Wallet, is now blocking US users, \u201cin light of recent announcements by U.S. authorities.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wasabiwallet.io\/zksnacks-now-blocking-u-s-residents-and-citizens\/\"><i>Wasabi<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/ITYlm\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Paris-based Acinq will block US users for its Phoenix Wallet, a self-hosting bitcoin wallet and personal Lightning Network node, starting May 3. \u201cRecent announcements from US authorities cast a doubt on whether self-custodial wallet providers, Lightning service providers, or even Lightning nodes could be considered Money Services Businesses and be regulated as such.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhoenixWallet\/status\/1783878658014249027\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/acinq_co\/status\/1783878732865740940\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The US authorities have been making these \u201crecent\u201d announcements for the past several years. FinCEN has been stating bluntly since 2019 that <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2019\/05\/09\/fincens-guidance-on-crypto-business-models-are-you-a-money-transmitter\/\">mixers are money transmitters<\/a> and they need to register \u2014 because that was simply what the law already said.<\/p>\n<p>But crypto is extremely accomplished at going &#8220;I didn&#8217;t hear that,&#8221; then acting surprised when they OFAC around and find out.<\/p>\n<p>While these wallets are blocking users,\u00a0that alone may not be enough. The services are still accessible with a VPN. The only way to fully block users is to do proper Know Your Customer \u2014 which they just won\u2019t do. This leaves them open to future busts.<\/p>\n<h3>The searing light of regulatory clarity<\/h3>\n<p>Block is Jack Dorsey\u2019s payments company, <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/12\/04\/news-square-goes-block-wikipedia-nft-el-salvador-bitcoin-city-plans-where-the-chinese-mining-rigs-went\/\">formerly known as Square<\/a> \u2014 the provider of CashApp. A whistleblowing employee says that Block has been very sloppy with collecting KYC \u2014 and has ended up processing transactions, in both dollars and bitcoins, for sanctioned countries and for terrorists. Whoops. Two Block employees concur that the company\u2019s compliance section is \u201cled by people who should not be in charge of a regulated compliance program.\u201d This comes after similar whistleblower reports in February 2024. The Southern District of New York is investigating. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/personal-finance\/prosecutors-examining-transactions-block-owner-cash-app-squarc-rcna147181\"><i>NBC<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/personal-finance\/whistleblowers-cash-app-leaves-door-open-money-laundering-terror-rcna138958\"><i>NBC<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>A Manhattan jury found Terraform Labs and its cofounder Do Kwon guilty of massive fraud on April 5, a little over a year after the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2023\/02\/18\/crypto-collapse-sec-tightening-crypto-custody-rules-why-you-cant-cash-out-your-busd-binance-and-catherine-coley-sec-charges-terra-luna\/\">SEC initially filed charges<\/a>. The SEC is asking the court to order a $4.2 billion disgorgement, a $420 million civil penalty against Terraform Labs, and a $100 million civil penalty against Kwon. [<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nysd.594150\/gov.uscourts.nysd.594150.231.0.pdf\"><i>Doc 231<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senator. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice claiming that crypto is the payment of choice for child sexual abuse material and sexual exploitation. They want to know what steps Justice is taking to address this. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.warren.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/Warren,%20Cassidy%20Letter%20to%20DOJ%20and%20DHS%20on%20CSAM%20&amp;%20Crypto.pdf\"><i>Letter<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Oh no, more <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2023\/06\/05\/reggie-fowler-bitfinex-tether-money-mule-sentenced-to-6-years-in-prison\/\">Reggie Fowler<\/a> news! (Like a single <i>ting<\/i> of a triangle half an hour after the symphony has finished.) The court ordered Bitfinex\/Tether money mule Fowler to forfeit $740 million when he was sentenced a year ago. However, the government has only been able to recover $68 million so far. Where did all the money go? Bitfinex\u2019ed thinks the money never existed and Bitfinex\/Tether lied about it. [<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nysd.513750\/gov.uscourts.nysd.513750.161.0.pdf\"><i>Order of forfeiture<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bitfinexed\/status\/1780385225966579836\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Craig Wright has to put up another \u00a31 million for bitcoin developers\u2019 legal fees after his attempt to force them to reassign allegedly-hacked bitcoins to him <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/03\/29\/news-crypto-crime-statistics-axie-infinity-hack-kevin-roose-debunked-lightning-network-speed-nft-lawsuits\/\">failed.<\/a> This comes on top of the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2024\/04\/07\/crypto-is-going-great-kucoin-busted-how-kickstarter-shot-itself-in-the-foot-with-blockchain-tether-goes-ai\/\">\u00a36 million<\/a> that Wright already had to pay to Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) for their legal fees in the case that ruled that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/news\/crime\/bitcoin-high-court-london-b1151135.html\"><i>Evening Standard<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The precise thing you would expect from a rich and successful libertarian who suddenly decides he knows more about tax laws than his own lawyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3778,3370,2775,21,38,2576,3598,2646,146,1275,2949,2500,7,3775,3779,1269,234,3774,33,2946,1824,3776,3777],"class_list":["post-26640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-acinq","tag-avi-eisenberg","tag-bill-cassidy","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitfinex","tag-block","tag-brian-klein","tag-copa","tag-craig-wright","tag-cz","tag-do-kwon","tag-elizabeth-warren","tag-irs","tag-keonne-rodriguez","tag-phoenix-wallet","tag-reggie-fowler","tag-roger-ver","tag-samourai-wallet","tag-sec","tag-terra","tag-wasabi-wallet","tag-william-lonergan-hill","tag-zksnacks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/roger-verified.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26640"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26659,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26640\/revisions\/26659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}