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My name is Roger Veer and I'm 45 years old. I was born in America but several years ago I made the difficult decision to renounce my citizenship. For more than two decades I've been relentlessly targeted by the US government. Now I'm facing the possibility of spending the rest of my life in prison up to a hundred and nine years for crimes I did not commit. This is my story. This case really is lawfare at its worst. We are clearly in a political lawfare environment.
01:06
The U.S. government don't really like it when someone stands up to them in any way, shape, or form. Lawfare isn't new. Lawfare has been happening for decades. At the time that the war against Roger began 25 years ago, he was one of the only ones, and very few Americans were aware this was happening.
01:24
But now, lawfare has reached to the highest levels. My name is Tracy Thurman. It's a little hard to describe what I do. I come in on cases where people are facing lawfare, and I do everything I can to help them. I only take cases I believe in, and I only take cases that I care about. Roger's case is one of those.
01:54
You grew up in Silicon Valley. What was that like? What was your family like? And I wish whoever does the editing good luck with chopping all this together as well. So I grew up in Silicon Valley and as a teenager I ran one of the most popular BBSs, that stands for bulletin board system, which was kind of the internet before the internet.
02:13
And so I ran that out of my bedroom and one summer, I think maybe between seventh and eighth grade, my mother told me I wasn't allowed to play any more video games and I had to go do something else. And so I went and looked on the bookshelf and I saw a book called Socialism by a man named Ludwig von Mises.
02:28
It basically explains how incredibly important money is and the prices that they transmit aren't just prices of goods, it's information as to what goods should be used to produce what other goods and what labor and what human resources should be used to produce other things. And without the free flow of money, the signals or the communications get distorted.
02:47
And any time the government gets involved in the flow of money, it's blocking these price signals. And the more economics I studied, the more I realized that any time government is intervening in the economy, they're retarding the world's rate of economic growth. Welcome to the Libertarian Party's 2000 presidential debate.
03:03
I wanted to tell people about these ideas. and so one of the ways that I thought would be efficient to tell more people around the world about the benefits of free markets and entrepreneurship and getting the government out of the way of the economy was to run for political office as a libertarian in the United States.
03:17
Each candidate is going to be given five minutes. I got to have numerous debates and meet lots of interesting people, but it was in one debate in particular at San Jose State University where I was debating the Republican and Democratic candidates, and unbeknownst to me at the time, in the audience were some ATF agents.
03:34
And I called the ATF and FBI a bunch of jackbooted thugs and murderers in reference to murdering children in Waco, Texas. Come out with your hands up. 911, what's the emergency? They're shooting at us in Mount Carmel. Tell them there are children and women in here and to call it off! There were dozens of young children there.
03:53
They literally sent in tanks and men with guns and they set the entire place on fire and then they posed for photos on top of the bodies of dead kids. French Davidians, including 24 children, were killed. You don't murder kids. And when Bitcoin came along, it was clear to me that that was the kryptonite to government's ability to wage wars and to control people and to interfere in the economy.
04:19
And there was nothing that was going to stop me from telling people about how important this was. For Roger, that was the beginning of asking very serious questions about the US government. And honestly, it was the beginning of the persecution against him. Before crypto, I'd been involved in e-commerce.
04:41
And I was selling mainly computer memory on the internet. And I was also selling a product called a Pest Control Report 2000, which was basically a firecracker that farmers could use to scare birds away out of their cornfield. And I was selling these on eBay back when eBay had a guns and ammo section and there were dozens if not hundreds of other people selling that exact same product on eBay.
05:00
I wound up being the only person ever in the entire history of the world to be charged criminally for selling those without a license. Can you imagine the U.S. government spend money and time to imprison Roger Ver over firecrackers? In a meeting between Roger, his attorney, the ATF agent, and the prosecutor, Roger's attorney was asking the prosecutor, look, wouldn't this be a case normally where you would just tell the guy to go to get a license? Maybe you'd fine him, but you wouldn't be be a case normally where you would just tell the guy to go to like get a license maybe you'd find him but you wouldn't be seeking prison time and at that point the atf
05:29
agent pounds his fist on the table and says but you didn't hear what he said about us that clears up completely whether this was a politically motivated case or not i literally became politically persecuted for saying things that i believe in my heart of hearts to be true if you murder kids you're a murderer and so anyhow I did my 10 months in federal prison.
05:47
And so I wound up waiting the three years of federal probation that I had. And literally on the very day I was allowed to leave, I left the United States and I haven't lived there again since because they made me terrified to live there. I was born there, all my family's there. That's where I grew up.
06:02
That's the place I love and will be near and dear to my heart forever. But these people just made it so frightening for me to be there because of the constant harassment over and over and over. All of our founding fathers gave up their citizenships because the country from which they came was no longer a place that they could call home.
06:19
And when they did it, it was treason. Every single one of them knew if they were captured, that was the end and the end would not be a pretty one. And yet they stood firm, they made that decision, and they acted out of bravery and principle. And Roger's a person who has done that too. Any time people exposed information that their government wanted to be kept secret, those people were called traitors and yet history views them as patriots and heroes.
06:42
When they sent me to prison the first time, I'm a little bit embarrassed to say, but it worked in the sense that they got me to shut up and to be quiet. You can't put it in your wallet. Your computer makes it and it trades like a stock. It's called Bitcoin.
07:02
In 2011, when I heard about Bitcoin for the first time, I knew it was one of the most important inventions in the entire history of the world. And I went on to become the very first person in the world to start investing in the cryptocurrency and Bitcoin ecosystem and seeded basically the entire first generation of crypto coin and Bitcoin businesses. Get involved right now today, tell everybody you know about this wonderful, amazing thing that's about to change the lives of everybody in the entire planet called Bitcoin.
07:23
He was the first American entrepreneur, maybe in the world, to really see the potential of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. I knew it when I began promoting Bitcoin, that this is something so powerful to the existing power structures that they'll do whatever they can to to stop it or shut it down. A brilliant innovator and a great humanitarian who cares about one thing more than anything else.
07:46
and that is the topic of human freedom i i couldn't be quiet any longer i had to speak out and uh and that's what i did and it was the right thing to do and i don't regret it one bit a digital currency in which transactions can be performed without the need for a central bank.
08:08
Woody, what is a Bitcoin? Bitches in the future? This is Wheel of Fortune, Joe! Bitcoin is the future. This is the first time in the entire history of the world in which anybody on the planet with the internet can send or receive money with anyone else, anywhere, and there's absolutely no way that anybody can interfere with that in any way. I would tell anybody that I would get to listen to me about Bitcoin, but the vast majority of people just kind of laughed at me or didn't take it seriously or just kind of thought I was crazy for being so interested in some internet nerd money that nobody was using.
08:38
But as each year went by, it gained more and more traction. It got more and more attention from around the world. And today it's the talk of people all over the planet. This is historic for the crypto space. The Bitcoin rocket ship keeps climbing. Bitcoin trounce the 100,000. It might go to 150K. You actually know this guy, Roger, is it Ver? Roger Ver.
08:58
He's earned the nickname Bitcoin Jesus. Who is known as Bitcoin Jesus. Bitcoin Jesus himself. Because he has proselytized, he's been very supportive of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Jesus. Who is known as Bitcoin Jesus. Bitcoin Jesus himself. Because he has proselytized, he's been very supportive of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Jesus.
09:09
Or Roger Bielerstein. Yeah, I would prefer that that was not my nickname. Eventually he was bartered by the government of his day. I would prefer not to meet the same fate. Leave it to the Biden administration to try to figure out a way to crucify Bitcoin Jesus. Cryptocurrencies in general are absolutely an opportunity for the entire world to have more personal and economic freedom and to shrink the control of violent third parties from interfering in people's lives all over the planet. Because when
09:33
you're using Bitcoin as money at this point, cryptocurrency, not just Bitcoin, it helps defund wars and helps defund government interference in the economy and helps grow the private sector and helps shrink the government sector. The private sector doesn't necessarily need anything from the government.
09:45
And The private sector doesn't necessarily need anything from the government. And so the more things we can privatize around the world, the better off everybody will be in the entire world. Digital currency may be the most effective way the world has ever seen to increase economic freedom. It doesn't matter what color you are, doesn't matter where you were born, and it doesn't matter where you live today.
10:04
You now can interact financially with every other human being on the planet without needing permission from anybody and it almost makes you want to cry so exciting for the world to see that become available bitcoin jesus is under arrest in spain on u.s tax and mail fraud charges.
10:31
Roger Ver is accused of evading nearly $50 million in taxes after earning $240 million trading cryptocurrency. If you want to build a system that allows for freedom, the most important element you can have besides freedom of speech is freedom of transaction. And so imagine a world in which every single financial transaction you make is tracked and recorded. And not only that, but if they don't like what you're spending your money on, or if they don't like the things that you're saying politically, they can prevent you from spending your money.
10:55
That's a scary, scary world to live in. For many people, the first time they ever heard of debanking, of freezing of assets for politically wrong speech, was the Canadian trucker protests. As of today, a bank or other financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze an account without a court order.
11:20
If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges. Banks have already started to freeze the accounts of people involved in the protest. If your money can be turned off, you are not a free man. So as we're recording this, we are in a little island off the coast of mainland Spain called Mallorca.
11:47
And I'm here because the United States government had me arrested earlier this year while I was visiting Spain for what I thought was going to be a four-day business trip. He is not permitted to leave the island. He cannot get on a boat. He cannot get on a plane. He cannot do anything other than sit here on this island waiting for the Spanish government to send him to US custody.
12:07
They're charging me with tax evasion and mail fraud. But the mail fraud is simply that the tax returns were sent in the mail. There's actually three charges of mail fraud because we sent the first tax return, the IRS claimed they didn't get it, so we sent the first tax return, the IRS claimed they didn't get it, so we sent it again.
12:30
So they're charging two separate counts of mail fraud for sending the same tax return two times in the mail because they claim they didn't get it the first time. And then they're charged me with a third count of mail fraud for sending another year's tax return a couple of years later.
12:45
90 of those 109 years are for simply putting the tax returns in the mail and sending them to them. So there's no fraud about that at all. So as I was pulling up to my house this morning after running some errands, the Spanish SWAT team had the street basically blocked off and it really spooked me. But either they weren't looking for me or somehow I got away. We're gonna drive by again and see if they're still there.
13:14
Well, they're gone now. They were all right here. Thankfully, they don't seem to have been there for me. So another day with a bit more freedom, although we'll have to go to the courthouse here shortly for my once every two day check in to make sure that, to prove to them that I didn't run away. One day there will be a knock at his door and at that moment he will be experiencing potentially the last moments of freedom he will have for the rest of his life.
13:44
That's a terrible burden to live under. At every moment, you don't know, is this my last moment of freedom? I think the way I look at it is that the worst that can happen is they kill me. Then it's no longer my problem, right? So, of course not. I'll put this on the record. I am in no way, shape, or form suicidal in any way.
14:07
And I would never, ever do anything like suicide by cop or anything like that ever. So if I wind up dead by any sort of mysterious circumstances, 1,000% sure I did not take my own life in any way, shape, or form. I would absolutely never do that, ever. John McAfee, found dead today in a prison cell in Spain.
14:28
The founder of the antivirus software that bears his name had just been ordered, extradited to the United States on tax evasion charges. After failing to report income made from promoting cryptocurrencies. And the widow of technology entrepreneur John McAfee says she does not accept claims that her late husband died by suicide.
14:49
Janice McAfee said in a Twitter post on Sunday, the US authorities are determined to have John die in prison to make an example of him for speaking out against the corruption within their government agencies. Claiming the US government wanted to silence him over challenges to the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
15:05
In wanted to silence him over challenges to the dollar as the world's reserve currency. In April of 2024, Roger came to Spain for what he thought would be four days for a conference and said he's been here ever since. He was arrested and thrown into the same prison where John McAfee died. He was in that prison for three and a half weeks until he was granted bail against the wishes of the United States.
15:25
And then when he was granted bail, he was sent to the island of Majorca. Every two days, he has to go to the court and check in to prove that he is still here. He's waiting to know, will he be back in the U.S. as a free man, or will he be back in the U.S. in shackles? At the time I renounced my U.S.
15:49
citizenship and expatriated, there were absolutely no rules or guidance whatsoever from the IRS as to how to pay taxes on Bitcoin. But I told my professionals and my attorneys and tax accountants that I knew I was a target for government persecution and that we had to make sure everything was done perfect. He says to his attorneys, I know the IRS is likely to audit me.
16:07
I need this to be done perfectly. I need every T crossed. I need every I dotted. I had my accountants, I had the tax attorneys, and then I hired additional former federal prosecutors to check all the work down. So I had like three separate layers of people checking people's work all the way down to make sure everything was perfect in regards to that.
16:24
The irony of Roger's case is that the government paints him as a person who's evading his taxes. But the evidence when you read the actual filings, when you read the actual emails between him and his attorneys, shows a man who is doing his absolute best to comply at every turn. This isn't about taxes. This isn't about taxes.
16:46
This isn't about money. This is about trying to suppress people from spreading American ideals to the world through the use of cryptocurrency. Roger Ver is a world-famous crypto pioneer. He is being charged by the United States on extremely dubious grounds. Somewhat similar to the way John McAfee, also in Spain, a crypto pioneer, was arrested at the request of American law enforcement.
17:10
So they're using the tax system as a form of lawfare. As an example to the rest of the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency world, don't you dare innovate. We have a scientist, Roger Ver, started a petition on his behalf. You can sign it. That'll help. FreeRogerNow.org. I haven't been able to see my mom and dad for coming up on a decade because of this.
17:48
And every day I wonder if I'm ever going to get to see them again before the day they die or before the day I die. One of the things that I want most in life is to spend time with my... I haven't seen my parents for a long, long time. The framers of our country were wise men. Men who understood that throughout human history, power tends to corrupt and it tends to corrupt absolutely.
18:16
And that with each generation, there would have to be people who are willing to risk all to protect freedom and risk everything in order to express that view once more. Roger was one of those people, and he's paid the price for doing so. Once they take me out of the way, it's even easier for them to go after everybody else out there because if they can do this to me with the resources and the people that I have supporting me, they can do it to absolutely anybody.
18:43
The lawfare in this country is only going to end if we decide that we are all going to stand up for our fellow Americans whether we agree with them politically or not. We can choose right now as Americans which direction do we go. Do we head toward tyranny? Do we head toward a new American century of freedom, of hope, of finding a national unity again.
19:05
And in order to do that, the lawfare must stop and our heroes have to come home. I don't know who said it, but in history they said, first they came for the so-and-so and nobody spoke out, and then they came for the next group and nobody spoke out. And by the time they came for me, there was nobody left to speak out.
19:23
And that's why it's so important for all of us to speak out all of the time so that they can't take us down one at a time. It was Ronald Reagan who said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
19:57
My name is Roger Veer. This is my story. I hope to God it never becomes yours.
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