Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder whom President Trump recently pardoned, is joining the call to “free” early Bitcoin evangelist Roger Ver. 

“Roger Ver was there for me when I was down and needed help. Now Roger needs our support,” Ulbricht said on X. “No one should spend the rest of their life in prison over taxes.”

The move is part of the crypto industry’s continuing reliance on President Trump — a vocal crypto supporter who sees himself as a victim of weaponized “lawfare” — to achieve political ends.

In their motion to dismiss the case, Ver’s white-shoe lawyers from Steptoe LLP and Kimura London & White argued the Department of Justice’s case was politically motivated due to Ver’s libertarian and crypto advocacy and represented “unconstitutional overreach.”

Ver, an early adopter and promoter of Bitcoin who was once more commonly known as “Bitcoin Jesus,” was arrested in Spain while attending a crypto conference at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice in April 2024. 

The U.S. indicted him on multiple charges of mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns, alleging he owed approximately $48 million in taxes related to his exit from the U.S. in 2014 when he renounced his citizenship and subsequent sales of bitcoin. Bitcoin traded within a wide range that year, peaking above $800 and cratering to around $330 by the end of the year, according to The Block’s data. 

According to the eight-count indictment, the DOJ accused Ver, a former California resident, of undervaluing the sale of tens of thousands of bitcoins worth $240 million in 2017, technically owned by his U.S.-based companies, MemoryDealers and Agilestar. 

“Even though Ver was not then a U.S. citizen, he was still legally required to report to the IRS and pay tax on certain distributions such as dividends from MemoryDealers and Agilestar, which were U.S. corporations,” the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Central District of California, wrote after his detainment in Spain.

The U.S. government also claims Ver undervalued those companies, which sold computer and networking equipment and at times held upwards of 73,000 bitcoins, when preparing his “exit tax” during the expatriation process. 

Ver was released on €150,000 (around $157,000) bail last May but remains under house arrest in Spain while awaiting an extradition decision. He faces up to 109 years in prison if convicted — a sentence his supporters argue is wildly disproportionate.

While the so-called “Free Roger” campaign, modeled after the successful “Free Ross” campaign, has achieved a degree of grassroots support and backing from several prominent individuals — primarily in crypto and libertarian circles — it is also a tough sell for many. 

Notably, Ulbricht was actually — not theoretically — serving two life sentences at the time, which many viewed as an excessive attempt at deterrence and retribution. His darknet drug market has also been deemed the first use case for bitcoin, proving the cryptocurrency worked (more or less) as advertised and kickstarted the process of wider adoption.

A presidential pardon was also the last remaining option for Ulbricht and his mother, Lynn, who spent the decade of his incarceration exploring all legal options available for an early release from prison.

Comparatively, although Ver helped many crypto startups in the early days, including by seeding BitPay and Kraken with capital, he has also spurned many would-be supporters, most notably when supporting the “big blocks” camp during the so-called “Blocksize Wars” that led to a contentious forking of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. 

This is not Ver’s first brush with the law. In 2002, he served a 10-month sentence in federal prison for selling explosives — specifically fireworks — on eBay without a proper license, illegally storing them and mailing them improperly. On his website, Ver refers to this case as “a unique legal challenge,” claiming he was “the only person ever prosecuted” for such a crime. After completing his prison term, he was placed on supervised release for three years.

Following his supervised release, Ver left the United States in 2005 and relocated to Japan. He later sought citizenship in Guatemala but encountered issues after being misled by individuals who promised citizenship through improper channels. Ultimately, Ver obtained citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis in 2014 and subsequently renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Ver argues the U.S. government has overstepped its legal authority while building this recent case against him. In 2018, for instance, IRS agents interrogated his tax lawyer and MemoryDealers employees without a warrant. The Free Roger team alleges this was a breach of attorney-client privilege and that the IRS is ignoring evidence Ver attempted in good faith to meet his tax obligations. (Notably, Ver’s website seemingly confirms a long-suspected rumor that Ver was involved, though unnamed, in a 2022 Supreme Court case regarding client confidentiality that was ultimately dismissed in 2023.)

Ver’s lawyers also argue the very notion of an “exit tax” — implemented in 2008 to mitigate tax avoidance and evasion by ensuring that wealthy individuals pay taxes on unrealized capital gains before leaving the U.S. tax system by renouncing their citizenship — is unconstitutional, in part due to the vagaries of how it would have applied to Ver’s crypto holdings at the time. 

“After six years of investigation, the IRS charges Roger under questionable pretenses, suggesting he renounced his citizenship to avoid taxes, contradicting his proactive compliance efforts,” Ver’s website reads. 

According to Polymarket, Ver has a 10% chance of being pardoned by Trump within his first 100 days in office, putting him just below whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Meanwhile, bettors are giving FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, whose parents are also reportedly seeking a clemency deal from Trump for their son, 2% odds.

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