Roger Ver, a prominent cryptocurrency investor, has reached a tentative agreement with the Justice Department to table a criminal tax fraud case that federal prosecutors brought against him last year, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Mr. Ver, 46, known as “Bitcoin Jesus” in crypto circles for his early evangelism, was charged by federal prosecutors in 2024 with fraud and tax evasion for failing to pay $48 million in taxes that he owed on his digital currency holdings. Under the terms of the deferred-prosecution agreement, Mr. Ver would pay about that much to the government, said the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deal.
Under the deal, which has not been filed with the court and could still change, the charges would eventually be dropped if Mr. Ver complied with the terms of the agreement.
The case is poised to become the latest example of how the Trump administration has systematically dismantled a yearslong government crackdown on the crypto industry, a sector rife with fraud, scams and theft.
Like other beneficiaries of the rollback, Mr. Ver sought to curry favor with President Trump by linking his case to the president’s grievances about the weaponization of the justice system.
This year, Mr. Ver paid $600,000 to Roger Stone, a longtime associate of Mr. Trump, to try to abolish the tax provisions at the heart of the case. And the crypto investor hired David Schoen, a lawyer who represented Mr. Trump during his second impeachment trial. Lobbying filings show that Mr. Ver also hired Christopher M. Kise, a lawyer who defended Mr. Trump against various criminal and civil charges, as well as the lobbying firm run by Brian Ballard, a major Trump fund-raiser.
A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment. Reached by phone, Mr. Ver also declined to comment.
“I’d LOVE to say more, but I will follow my tax lawyer’s advice like I’ve been doing for decades,” he wrote in a follow-up email. “Unfortunately, that means ‘no comment.’”
The Biden administration spent years cracking down on crypto. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a series of lawsuits arguing that digital currencies should be subject to the same strict rules that govern stocks and bonds on Wall Street.
But since Mr. Trump took office for his second term, the S.E.C. has dropped lawsuits against Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, and other major firms.
And during his first week in office, Mr. Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the crypto-fueled drug marketplace Silk Road, who was serving a life sentence on charges that included distributing narcotics on the internet. The president later pardoned the founders of the BitMEX exchange, who had pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating a law that protects against money laundering.
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the crypto exchange Binance, is also seeking a pardon that would wipe away a money-laundering violation and pave the way for his company to establish itself in the U.S. market.
Mr. Ver, a former California resident who renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014, was arrested last year in Spain, according to the Justice Department, which announced plans at the time to extradite him. Prosecutors accused him of concealing the value of his Bitcoin holdings while he prepared filings connected to the requirement that Americans settle any tax obligations before renouncing citizenship.
In January, Mr. Ver claimed in a video posted on social media that he was being threatened with a possible sentence of more than 100 years because of his political views and his role in promoting crypto.
“Mr. President, I am an American, and I need your help,” he wrote on X. “Only you, with your commitment to justice, can save me.”