Michael Saylor, president of MicroStrategy and a well-known bitcoin (BTC) proponent, is being charged with tax evasion. The billionaire recently opted to relinquish his position as CEO. Instead of that position, he wanted to focus as much as possible on bitcoin. But his vocal stance may now be costing him his head – the US government is suing him.
Michael Saylor indicted
That writes AG Karl A. Racine on Twitter. He is the Attorney General of the District Court of Washington DC and states that Saylor has lived in the district for over ten years but has never paid his income tax in Washington DC. His company MicroStrategy is also suing Columbia district court for helping Saylor evade hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, Racine said in a statement. second tweet.
He also calls on residents to report those who are guilty of tax evasion to the police. Residents who commit this crime will be held accountable. It is also the first lawsuit to be held under the new legislation, which calls on whistleblowers to report culprits to the government if they do not honestly record their place of residence. The US government passed the bill with a unanimous vote.
NEW: Today, we’re suing Michael Saylor – a billionaire tech executive who has lived in the District for more than a decade but has never paid any DC income taxes – for tax fraud.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) August 31, 2022
So, apparently, Saylor’s problem was that he declared a residential address to the IRS in a state with a lower tax rate. Following the tweets, MicroStrategy’s stock price (ticker: MSTR) fell about 11%. Saylor is also said to have suggested the following:
In addition, in a January 24, 2021 interview, Saylor boasted that Bitcoin is an ideal tool for tax evasion. He suggests bitcoin owners could tell their government ‘go f—k yourself’ and claim they’ve lost their bitcoin access key, challenging the government with ‘burden that!’”
https://t.co/rHSf2aJ66q pic.twitter.com/7fdVju1rHa
— db (@tier10k) August 31, 2022
Bitcoin fanatic educator
Saylor is one of the foremost proponents of Bitcoin. He recently stepped down from his company as CEO, now he is only chairman of the board. He wants to spend the rest of his time raising awareness for Bitcoin, even though his position is now down 900 million euros.
You can hardly call this loss a surprise, he has already stated that he would continue to buy Bitcoin – even if he realized that he was probably buying the top.
Saylor made his name when he made a major investment in bitcoin in 2020 with MicroStrategy as the first publicly traded company. MicroStrategy owns approximately 130,000 BTC, currently worth about 2.6 billion euros.