Roger Ver joins the band of martyred crypto leaders such as Ross Ulbricht as he faces off with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) over tax evasion allegations.

After his arrest in Spain in April, US authorities are seeking his extradition on charges including tax evasion, mailfraud and filing false tax returns.

Prosecutors claim Ver undervalued his assets and concealed the sale of 131,000 bitcoins-worth nearly $240 million at the time in 2017-resulting in a tax shortfall of approximately $48 million.

In his interview with Tucker Carlson, Ver denied all the allegations, claiming that the U.S government is coming for him not because of taxes but because of his high-profile promotion of cryptocurrencies, which he believes threatens the government's control of money system.

Twisting the law against him

Ver also claims that the DOJ is using the American tax laws, which he claims to be unconstitutional and inscrutably vague against him.

In the filing, Ver claims that the way the DOJ is twisting the very ambiguous tax laws to charge him is very unconstitutional.

This sentiment was echoed by many crypto leaders, who had come to his defense. Ross Ulbricht, the foudner of the market place Silk Road, was the first person to come to his defense, arguing that no one should spend life in prison for tax offenses.

"No one should spend the rest of their life in prison because of taxes. Let him pay the tax and let's be done with it."

On Jan 27, Ver released a video on his social media, explaining how he has been terrorized by the U.S government for decades.

Co-founder of Ethereum joins the crusade

Not long after Ross made his statement, Ethereum's co-founder Vitalik Buterin joined the crusade by criticising DOJ's practice of selective prosecution, contending that such actions erode constitutional protections, including the first amendment.

Similar to Ver, he also condemned the flaw of the U.S tax laws, stating the U.S tax-by-citizen policy and exit tax regime are draconian laws that only seen in the U.S and no other countries.

"The US tax-by-citizenship and associated exit tax regime is extreme; the former is shared by almost no other countries in the world and the latter is on the high end of what countries do"

Buterin also questions why Ver has to spend life in prison over a non-violent tax offense when there are many other individuals and corporations that had faced accusations for far more serious offenses yet receive milder sentences.

Buterin adds that Ver's advocacy for freedom and him championing for an independent financial system should make him a martyr.

DOGE chief Elon Musk says nope

But apparently not everyone is on his side. One of them being the richest man in the world, who claims that a pardon for Ver might be hard now that he had renounced his U.S Citizenship.

Ver, who served prison time in 2002 for selling explosives on ebay, renounced his U.S citizenship in 2014 and became a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis.

When a netizen tagged Elon Musk on X with the question "when are we pardoning Roger Ver", he replied that a pardon is very unlikely for Ver.

"Roger Ver gave up his citizenship. No pardon for Ver. Membership has its privileges."