{"id":52996,"date":"2025-05-13T06:20:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T14:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=52996"},"modified":"2025-05-13T06:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T14:45:18","slug":"new-doj-memo-should-end-case-against-roger-ver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/13\/new-doj-memo-should-end-case-against-roger-ver\/","title":{"rendered":"New DoJ Memo Should End Case Against Roger Ver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Roger Ver is a BitCoin pioneer who used the profits he made to help others.\u00a0 The US government pursued him for years and was finally arrested in Spain on bogus tax evasion charges on behalf of the US government.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roger had renounced his citizenship years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Roger shared his money to help many:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>From disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Harvey to rebuilding communities in Antigua\u2026<\/li>\n<li>From funding a nonprofit school on the brink of closure to supporting women\u2019s tech education in Nigeria\u2026<\/li>\n<li>From paying for a life-changing surgery to helping a grieving family stay afloat\u2026<\/li>\n<li>As one of the early supporters of <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinnotbombs.com\/\">Bitcoin Not Bombs<\/a>,\u00a0 <strong>Roger was a major donor and booster to Antiwar.com for many years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Roger Ver was there. Privately. Humbly. Without fanfare or expectation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cHe didn\u2019t ask for anything in return,\u201d one individual shared. \u201cNo one even knew it was him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now we have an opportunity to help free Roger.\u00a0 The following is from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freerogernow.org\/\">Free Roger Now Campaign<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">We have <strong>encouraging news<\/strong> that could change everything in the fight for justice for Roger Ver.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">On <strong>April 7, 2025<\/strong>, the U.S. Department of Justice released a landmark memo titled <a href=\"https:\/\/a1e0.engage.squarespace-mail.com\/r?m=6822c2cc5c0d39230304c813&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.justice.gov%2Fdag%2Fmedia%2F1395781%2Fdl%3Finline&amp;w=664190ec4f81737a176deacf&amp;c=b_681f1aefe7013214fc9c9fc1&amp;l=en-US&amp;s=yk0NImztEq9R0yrGhOE-4k_j4y8%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><strong>\u201cEnding Regulation By Prosecution.\u201d<\/strong><\/a> It declares an immediate end to the Biden-era strategy of using criminal prosecutions to enforce vague or nonexistent crypto regulations. The memo states:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator&#8230; The Justice Department will no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/em> \u2014 Office of the Deputy Attorney General, April 7, 2025<\/p>\n<p>This new policy <strong>explicitly instructs federal prosecutors to drop cases<\/strong> that target individuals based on unclarified crypto regulations, unless they involve harm to investors or use of crypto for serious crimes (like terrorism or human trafficking).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Roger Ver\u2019s case does neither.<br \/>\n<\/strong>He is being targeted over a 2014 tax interpretation\u2014before the IRS even issued crypto guidance. He acted in <strong>good faith<\/strong>, hired top legal experts, and tried to follow the law. The DOJ\u2019s own memo now admits that such prosecution is no longer in line with the Department\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What this means:<br \/>\n<\/strong>The DOJ has <strong>no legal or political justification<\/strong> to continue prosecuting Roger Ver. This case should be <strong>dismissed immediately<\/strong> under the Department\u2019s new directive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Now is the time to <strong>amplify our voices.<br \/>\n<\/strong> We are asking all supporters to do two things today:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"dash\" data-rte-list=\"dash\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Share the petition with family and friends<\/strong>:<a href=\"https:\/\/a1e0.engage.squarespace-mail.com\/r?m=6822c2cc5c0d39230304c813&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Ffreerogernow.org%2F%3Fss_source%3Dsscampaigns%26ss_campaign_id%3D681f1aefe7013214fc9c9fc1%26ss_email_id%3D6822c2cc5c0d39230304c813%26ss_campaign_name%3DBREAKING%253A%2BNew%2BDOJ%2BMemo%2BShould%2BEnd%2BCase%2BAgainst%2BRoger%2BVer%26ss_campaign_sent_date%3D2025-05-13T03%253A56%253A07Z&amp;w=664190ec4f81737a176deacf&amp;c=b_681f1aefe7013214fc9c9fc1&amp;l=en-US&amp;s=Do6-1XM7S_Awj9pEXSRcQ7HKzwU%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"> FreeRogerNow.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/a1e0.engage.squarespace-mail.com\/r?m=6822c2cc5c0d39230304c813&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.justice.gov%2Fdoj%2Fwebform%2Fyour-message-department-justice&amp;w=664190ec4f81737a176deacf&amp;c=b_681f1aefe7013214fc9c9fc1&amp;l=en-US&amp;s=ThuJ6TFR3LXUQlI9YhQ7fYpUw58%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><strong>Contact your elected officials<\/strong><\/a><strong> and ask them to demand DOJ drop the case<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\">The system tried to make Roger an example. Now we must make this moment an example of how public pressure, legal truth, and political will can change lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Thank you for standing with us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u2014 The Roger Ver Support Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roger Ver is a BitCoin pioneer who used the profits he made to help others.\u00a0 The US government pursued him for years and was finally arrested in Spain on bogus tax evasion charges on behalf of the US government.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roger had renounced his citizenship years earlier. Roger shared his money to help many: From disaster [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[779],"class_list":["post-52996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53000,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52996\/revisions\/53000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52996"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=52996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}