Original title: Why the Intel Agencies Want to Track Your Every Transaction and Throw Roger Ver in Jail for Life
Compiled by: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's note: In the interview, Roger Ver shared that he was politically persecuted by the US government for participating in cryptocurrency activities. He also mentioned that the discussion platform of the early Bitcoin community was censored and the voices supporting Bitcoin payment were suppressed. This whole process distorts the essence of Bitcoin and may turn it into a new financial control tool. Roger reveals the dark history of how governments and intelligence agencies have hindered and changed the development of Bitcoin over the past decade.
Bitcoin originally carried the ideal of decentralization and free payment, aiming to provide global users with financial tools independent of government control. However, as Bitcoin became more popular, the intervention of governments and intelligence agencies gradually changed its original intention. In the interview, it was mentioned that the discussion platform of the early Bitcoin community was censored, and the voices advocating Bitcoin as a payment tool were suppressed. Instead, propaganda that portrayed Bitcoin as a digital asset was introduced. This process distorted the essence of Bitcoin. Making it a possible new financial control tool.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
“The US government wants to politically execute me for telling the truth about Bitcoin”
Host: Roger, let me summarize your case. This is what I read: You are being sought by the U.S. Department of Justice to be extradited from your native Spain, a Western European ally, to face possible indictment for tax evasion. Life imprisonment, a total of 109 years. However, you are not a U.S. citizen, and you were not a U.S. citizen during the period you were charged with evading U.S. taxes. So whenever I see the U.S. government trying to extradite someone and sentence him to 109 years for tax evasion, I am amazed. When I read the news about your imprisonment in 2006, I wonder if it's not just about taxes. Is there another reason why the US government is angry with you and wants you to spend the rest of your life in prison?
Roger: Honestly, I don't think it has anything to do with taxes. They are just angry at me for not being obedient and not "listening".
I was the first person in the world to start investing in the Bitcoin ecosystem and in companies that enable people to use Bitcoin as currency and cash. Since 2011, I have been promoting Bitcoin and telling people: Don’t Stop using dollars, euros, and yen and switch to Bitcoin.
We now have an alternative where anyone can have full control over their own money, without the need for permission from any politician or government. And for governments that control people by controlling the money supply, this freedom is a threat to their power. So obviously, they didn't like this very much.
I knew this was dangerous, so I thought the safest thing to do was not to become a U.S. citizen. So in 2014, I gave up my U.S. citizenship and became a “world citizen.” However, my new citizenship is St. I'm in the Caribbean, and I thought it would be safer to promote Bitcoin from there. I always try to follow the law, even if I may not agree with a lot of it, because I know that when you're pushing to change the world, When you do something wrong, the government often doesn't like it and may target you.
Therefore, I told my tax lawyer and all the relevant people that everything must be done perfectly and not give the US government any reason to find fault. But more than ten years after I gave up my US citizenship, just after I published a book about Bitcoin being The book behind the hijacking reveals how Bitcoin is no longer a global peer-to-peer cash, but has become a digital asset that people use to speculate on the price, rather than a global currency that can compete with the US dollar, euro, and yen. Currency - After the book was published the world exploded, it was revealed how some people claiming to work for intelligence agencies hijacked Bitcoin, I was arrested and put in a Spanish prison with a possible sentence of over 100 years.
I am 45 years old today, and the chances of me living to 109 years from now with current technology are not very high, so this is equivalent to letting me die in prison. They are just upset because of what I said and the way I promoted cryptocurrency. I I was the founder of bitcoin.com, the co-founder of XRP and blockchain.com, and a lot of other companies. I pretty much laid the foundation for the entire first generation of cryptocurrency companies. So, they were very impressed with me for trying to push a currency that could compete with the dollar. Competing world currencies are extremely unhappy.
Moderator: I would like to add a personal comment. I am an American citizen. I am not against the dollar itself. The problem is that the dollar is poorly managed. I think it is the negligence of those who control it - the US government and the Federal Reserve - that has caused the dollar to remain in a long-term It doesn’t look plausible. Their failure to do so has forced people to consider other options, and Bitcoin is one of the most promising alternatives.
I remember it very clearly because I am 55 years old now. When Bitcoin first came out, the idea was to provide a way for people to control their own money and use it to trade and buy goods and services without being controlled by others. But now it has become an asset class, and I would like to know how this happened. If you can, please explain in detail the secret operations of intelligence agencies mentioned in your book. A big point of view.
How was Bitcoin "hijacked" by intelligence agencies?
Roger: If we want to talk about this, we have to go back 25 years to when I was a young man running for office in California as a libertarian, advocating for lower taxes and less government intervention, in 2000.
If anyone remembers, there was an incident in Waco, Texas in the late 1990s. There was a religious group that included some adults and a lot of children, some of them were only three, four, or five years old, still children. Even though their parents were religious fanatics, The ATF (ATF) and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) actually set fire to those people and burned their homes to ashes. Afterwards, they took photos on the dead children. This behavior is completely unacceptable. , the FBI and ATF are a bunch of murderers in this matter. You can't kill a child for that reason even if the parents broke the law, but that's what they do.
In debates with Republican and Democratic candidates, I called the ATF murderers because they did this. They were very upset about it. I was 20 or 21 years old at the time, I had seven or eight employees, and I was just starting a business. I was the only person in the world who was sued for selling fireworks on eBay, even though there were a lot of other sellers selling them, like Cabela's sporting goods catalog. These fireworks were sold everywhere, and I was the only one who was prosecuted for selling without a license. It wasn't because I sold fireworks without a license, it was because they were angry about what I said.
During one discussion between my attorney, the prosecutor, and the ATF agent, the ATF agent even slammed his hand on the table and said, “Didn’t you hear what he said?” They were referring to me calling them murderers. If you burned a bunch of kids to death, you were a murderer, which they did.
I ended up signing a plea agreement and serving 10 months in federal prison. If I had gone to court and lost (which I probably would have, since I was legally selling fireworks without a license), I would have been sentenced to 7 years in prison. to 8 years in prison. So at that point, I no longer felt safe in the United States, I had experienced political persecution. So the day I was allowed to leave the United States, I left immediately.
I was not born a libertarian. I came to this by chance through a book by Ludwig von Mises, and later by Milton Friedman, David Friedman's works until I discovered Murray Rothbard's books. Rothbard's works completely changed my outlook on life and moved me like music to my ears. I think Rothbard is one of the economists who has had the greatest influence on him, and I strongly recommend that you read any of Rothbard's works, which will subvert your understanding of the world.
Through these economics books, I learned about the origin of money and how something can be used as money. It must have certain characteristics, such as durability, easy to divide, portable, easy to identify, difficult to counterfeit, etc. These are the characteristics that make it a currency. When I read these books, they made sense to me, but I didn’t really test these theories until I was in prison.
In prison, everyone uses something as currency to buy and sell each other's items. These "currencies" are usually tobacco, stamps, and instant noodles. If you think about it carefully, these things have the characteristics of being a currency - easy to carry, durable, and durable. , easy to identify, and have practical uses: stamps can be used to send letters, instant noodles can be eaten, and tobacco can be smoked. All of this is not stipulated by prison guards or any prisoners, but is a naturally formed economic system.
When Bitcoin came along more than a decade later, I had both the theoretical knowledge and the practical experience in prison. So I had no doubt that people would start using Bitcoin as money. I thought, isn’t this what everyone does? Is this a libertarian's dream coming true?
All of a sudden, we have the right to choose. I'm not against the dollar, the yen, or the euro, I'm for the right to choose. I think people should be able to choose the form of currency they want to use, whether it's the dollar, the euro, Whether it's the yen, Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency, I'd like to see this option realized.
When Bitcoin appeared, the first thing I did was to buy a bunch of Bitcoins. At that time, the price of Bitcoin was less than $1. My company, MemoryDealers.com, also became the first mature enterprise in the world to accept Bitcoin payments. We started advertising that we accept Bitcoin payments, and even though no customers paid with Bitcoin at first, it attracted global media attention. I remember it was in June 2011, when the price of Bitcoin went from about $3 to $1. It soared to $30 within two or three weeks. This was the first time that Bitcoin received such widespread media attention.
Then a funny thing happened. At the time, the main forum for discussing Bitcoin was BitcoinTalk.org. As Bitcoin gained international media coverage, this normally functioning forum suddenly became flooded with spam posts. Meaningless comments, new users can't learn about Bitcoin through the forum at all, someone is deliberately preventing the spread of Bitcoin during this critical period. As early as 2011, we already knew that the CIA was interested in Bitcoin because they had sent Bitcoin developers ask about Bitcoin. The CIA was already researching Bitcoin before most people had even heard of it.
At the time, everyone knew that Bitcoin was designed to be a global currency, a peer-to-peer global payment tool. People were using Bitcoin for payments, and I was using it to pay salaries and overseas suppliers. I even used it on China hosted the first Bitcoin meetup and aired ads on national radio stations to promote Bitcoin, doing its best to spread Bitcoin around the world.
But around 2012, a man calling himself “John Dylan” claimed to be a member of the intelligence agencies and spent more than $10,000 (a considerable amount of money) to produce propaganda content, trying to mislead people into believing that the Bitcoin blockchain was being maintained. The small press release said that Bitcoin is more decentralized. This is completely contrary to the facts and the original intention of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was not designed or used in this way at the time. At first, no one believed these propaganda contents. .
Later, the Bitcoin community experienced a huge wave of censorship. Some anonymous people took control of all major Bitcoin discussion platforms, and overnight, any speech advocating the use of Bitcoin as a currency was banned. They censored all attempts to People who promote Bitcoin for payments. Initially, people can see through these operations, but as new users come on board, they are indoctrinated into these censored ideas.
Now the main advocates of Bitcoin have publicly declared: "Bitcoin should not compete with the US dollar, Bitcoin should not be used as a currency, and should not be used for payment." They position Bitcoin as a digital asset that is only used This is completely contrary to the original intention of Bitcoin. Through censorship and propaganda, they have completely hijacked Bitcoin. I even wrote a book about it, called "Hijacking Bitcoin", which can be found at HijackingBitcoin .com or Amazon.
I was arrested a few weeks after the book was published and now face 109 years in federal prison for exposing the truth about how Bitcoin was hijacked. You can be optimistic about the "new Bitcoin" being promoted now, but you can't deny it. was hijacked. Fortunately, we now have thousands of different cryptocurrencies. I support competition and have never been a Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency maximalist. I am a utilitarian liberal maximalist. As an innovator, I pursue technology that provides the greatest benefit to the most people in the world, promotes economic freedom, and drives economic growth. This is what I want to promote.
Is Bitcoin the government’s new “financial prison”?
Moderator: There are a lot of questions, but let's start with the core promise of Bitcoin. We all remember clearly that the original promise of Bitcoin was to allow people to trade goods and services anonymously and without federal control. It is a A digital currency that gives users the freedom to make purchases. So how exactly do they control this discussion? You mentioned that they censor the discussion boards, can you explain how that works?
Roger: Of course, censorship starts with controlling the discussion platforms. At the time, there were two main discussion platforms where people discussed Bitcoin. One was BitcoinTalk.org and the other was Reddit. Discussions on these two places were very active. And some anonymous person managed to become the administrator or owner of both platforms. Then one day, he started to implement a censorship policy, banning anyone who expressed opinions that did not conform to the "Bitcoin Small Block" propaganda.
When censorship first started, people posted on Reddit to complain. That post complaining about censorship became the most upvoted post in the history of r/Bitcoin. As a result, they not only deleted the post, but also banned the people who participated in the discussion. This continues to this day. If you post anything on r/Bitcoin or BitcoinTalk.org that supports "Bitcoin scaling for global payments," they will simply block your account.
Many people who are involved in Bitcoin now only focus on the price, such as "Bitcoin is now close to $100,000 a piece", or listen to Michael Saylor saying "Pay taxes, don't be provocative, don't compete with the US dollar, otherwise you will anger Visa, MasterCard and the government." ". These remarks completely deviate from the original spirit of Bitcoin. At that time, everyone was talking about "Bitcoin finally allows people to choose the currency they want to use."
Imagine if people used Bitcoin to get their salaries, shop, and pay for everything, how would the US government allocate billions of dollars to Ukraine? How would it invest huge amounts of money in wars that most people don't support? They wouldn't be able to do what they do now. Similarly, these goals are achieved by issuing additional currency out of thin air.
What do you learn in school? "Government is for the people." But if people use hard assets like cryptocurrencies in their daily lives, the government must be more accountable to the people than it is now, and this is exactly what There are reasons why the government doesn’t want this to happen.
So governments have been trying to do their best to prevent Bitcoin from growing and prevent people from using cryptocurrencies as money in their daily lives, whether it's through tax policies, tax reporting, exit taxes, or whatever else, they're trying to make it as difficult as possible. I actually offered to pay people in the room in cryptocurrency when I was recording the show, but they didn’t want to accept it because they were worried about the tax consequences. The government is worried about losing control of the money supply, and if they lose control, Most of society's control is lost.
If you believe in individual rights and freedoms, and that everyone should be in control of their own destiny, it would be a wonderful thing if the government lost its ability to control people's lives.
That’s why I’m so excited about Bitcoin, and I’ve been involved for almost 15 years in promoting cryptocurrency as a currency for people around the world, whether you’re awaiting extradition in Spain, in the United States, or anywhere in the world. It belongs to everyone, and it needs to compete with the dollar, the euro, the yen, the ruble, and all the others.
Because when people have more choices, their lives are better, which leads to more economic freedom, which leads to more economic growth, and economic growth leads to higher living standards for everyone, which actually makes the planet better. Everyone's life gets better. That's why I'm so excited to be a part of this, even though I'm facing the possibility of 109 years in federal prison, just for telling people about these exciting ideas and technologies.
Host: So the original promise of Bitcoin was to make you free, but through disruption, it quickly became about making you rich, and that change was enough to derail the original promise. I should mention that you did Get rich. You could have chosen to say nothing and sit back and enjoy your Bitcoin wealth because you bought a lot of Bitcoin early on, but it sounds like your ideological commitments outweigh your financial interests.
Roger: It's nothing to me. I was a millionaire before Bitcoin. I have my own technology company in Silicon Valley and it's doing very well. A lot of people are talking about "when can I buy a Lamborghini?" , they said I should sell my bitcoin and buy Lamborghinis, I owned multiple Lamborghinis before Bitcoin came into being. When Bitcoin came into being, I believed in Bitcoin so strongly that I sold my Lamborghinis and bought more Bitcoin. That's what I'm passionate about, philosophically, emotionally, intellectually, because it's really one of the best tools in the world for individuals to have more control over their lives. So, I The direction is completely opposite to most people involved in Bitcoin today. I was selling things to buy Bitcoin because I knew it would become the global currency. Today, it may be Bitcoin, it may be other cryptocurrencies, but cryptocurrencies Currency is definitely the future, and remember it’s 2024.
When Bitcoin first came out, there was no Apple Pay, no Zell, these things barely existed, there was almost no competition. But the government succeeded in delaying the adoption of cryptocurrencies, and now the traditional financial system has suddenly caught up and achieved more. opportunity.
This is really frustrating because life is short. Every year goes by faster and faster, and each of us has less and less time left in our lives. We need to enjoy the benefits of cryptocurrency as soon as possible. , and the world needs to get these benefits as soon as possible. Don't waste time, this is exactly what governments around the world have been doing. They have been delaying and hindering the popularization of cryptocurrency as a currency, which is actually delaying the entire human race and human society. Progress, it's really frustrating to see this happen.
Moderator: The most frustrating part from my perspective is that it’s clear that you can’t do any private transactions with cryptocurrency right now, which is the core promise. I made this money, I didn’t do anything wrong, I I want to buy something, and no one should know whether I bought it or not. I want to do this in privacy, which I don’t think is strange, it’s human nature. So is it possible to use cryptocurrency to conduct any form of anonymous transactions? What about the deal?
Roger: Initially, everyone thought that Bitcoin was basically anonymous, and everyone used it that way. Later, some websites started selling things that the government might not want you to buy, and people used Bitcoin to buy them, because everyone thought that Bitcoin was basically anonymous. Anonymous. We later discovered that Bitcoin is not anonymous at all.
Today, most people use a custodial wallet, which isn’t really a wallet at all, it’s just an account, and it’s no more private than an account you have at Bank of America or Paypal. In fact, it’s even less private than that, because any Anyone can look at the blockchain and see what's inside. But fortunately, there are other cryptocurrencies that offer more privacy. For example, Monero is a cryptocurrency that most people can use if they want privacy. Will use this.
But there are actually more exciting technologies and currencies out there, such as a project called Zeno, which allows anyone to create their own privacy tokens that completely hide any transactions from the outside world. If you want to annoy the government or the three major intelligence agencies, there is a project called Confidential Layer, which is building a bridge to connect Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum to Zeno. , non-custodially bridged to the Zeno platform, and with no central management point, once on Zeno you have very strong privacy protection.
I think this will bring more privacy to the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, but governments will definitely hate this. Like the Monero I mentioned earlier, it is currently banned from trading in most parts of the world. So, it’s just because the government can’t monitor users of Monero or Zeno as easily as they can other cryptocurrencies. So I’m a big supporter of privacy-preserving coins like Monero or Zeno right now.
In fact, I am embarrassed to promote Bitcoin to others now because its transactions are slow, expensive, unreliable, and have no privacy protection. I would rather promote privacy protection tools such as Monero, Zeno, and ZCash because They can provide people with more personal control, privacy, and economic freedom.
Now a lot of people are saying Bitcoin is free money, but I really worry that they are actually building financial prison walls for themselves. If you look at what’s going on in El Salvador, everyone is excited about Bitcoin being circulated there, but they all Using escrow accounts where the government can see every transaction and freeze the account at any time is not economic freedom at all, it is government control of the economy. So anyone who cares about these issues should be very worried and should support those who can truly enable individuals to Take control of your money and your life with cryptocurrency.
I think it’s possible that Bitcoin will become more private by bridging to Zeno through this technology called the Confidential Layer, but who can be sure now? We need to be very careful because we may be building a financial The walls of the prison, once you realize it, it may be too late to escape. So today we must be vigilant and stay awake.
Moderator: There are many people in the cryptocurrency space who are worthy of admiration, and I am friends with some of them. I also like and identify with the people you mentioned. What confuses me is why I am the only one who is talking about These words? Why didn’t those promoting various cryptocurrencies raise the alarm that every transaction we make with these currencies is not private and can actually be easily tracked by the government? Why didn’t anyone say this?
Roger: Because censorship and propaganda worked, a lot of people actually said that, but apart from me, there were almost no people with a big enough platform or a big enough voice to attract enough attention. Because I have such a big platform and voice, I don't think it's just a coincidence that all of a sudden I'm facing 109 years in prison.
If the solution to some opinions or speech you disagree with is more debate, discussion, and free speech, then the opposite is censorship and propaganda. And many of the people who are promoting Bitcoin now support this censorship. I am completely on the side of free speech and advocacy. When the debate on Bitcoin scaling began, I was leaning towards the so-called big block solution, but I wanted to keep an open mind and listen to other opinions. So I kept Be silent and start listening. However, as I listened, suddenly one side began to try to suppress the voice of the other side. I know which side I stand on, I stand on the side of free speech.
So when one side began to censor the other, I knew it was time to speak out. I support Bitcoin being able to scale in the way it was originally intended to scale - as written in the Bitcoin white paper, to become peer-to-peer cash for the whole world, which is different from what everyone is doing now. The speculative assets mentioned are completely different.
Bitcoin is approaching $100,000 now, and maybe it should have been $100,000 five years ago, but it has been hijacked and has become detached from its original purpose as global cash. What we see today is that it is approaching $100,000, but What we don’t see is what it might have become if big companies like Microsoft and Expedia hadn’t stopped accepting Bitcoin because of its slow transactions, high fees, erratic transactions, and lack of privacy. So this is really It's disappointing.
Thank you for giving me this platform to sound the alarm. I don't want to see the whole world end up in some kind of financial prison, no matter how cool it sounds, like Bitcoin.
Host: Who is Satoshi?
Roger: I don't know, and if anyone knows, I don't know. But whoever he is, wherever he is, he or they, or even she, invented one of the most important technologies in human history, along with electricity, transistors, the Internet, It's just as important. It's really world-changing technology. So, whoever they are, wherever they are, they should have privacy because obviously that's what they want.
Host: So it doesn't sound like you suspect Bitcoin was created by intelligence agencies and given to people as a trap?
Roger: I don’t think Bitcoin was originally created by intelligence agencies, but I do have some suspicions that intelligence agencies and other groups have transformed and hijacked it into a financial trap.
"I live every day like it's my last": Roger's current life under house arrest
Host: I think you explained it very well. No wonder they want to put you in jail. I shouldn't laugh. This is actually a very scary thing because they really want to put you in jail. So, I want to You know, do you think you're actually going to jail? Is there any way to prevent this?
Roger: There are many ways to stop this, but I think the most effective way is to let the public speak out. The more people speak out, the safer everyone will be. So, one of the most outrageous things is that the IRS is carrying guns. They broke into my law firm and my accounting firm, and they actually raided my lawyer's office. And in the United States, you have the right to communicate with your lawyer and maintain privacy. This information can be obtained through a website called Free Roger Now. The supporters set up this website for this purpose.
They recently filed a document called a "Motion to Dismiss" and you can see for yourself that the U.S. government lied in the indictment. The evidence is in the emails between me and my attorney, go see it for yourself, don't just take my word for it. Say, please do go look at that motion to dismiss.
They lied in the Spanish courts, and lied everywhere, because they didn’t want the world to know the truth about cryptocurrencies — that they could be used to empower individuals, give people control over their lives, and surpass the politicians who never They haven’t met you, nor do they know your life, and most of them don’t care about you at all.
So now people around the world can use cryptocurrency, and they can use it to escape inflation, or escape other oppressive measures. Cryptocurrency is a great tool for global freedom, and governments are the antithesis of freedom.
They don't like people having more freedom, that's why they don't like crypto and that's why they're trying to silence me. I wish I had more solid evidence, but I don't think it's wrong for me to be arrested and put in jail. It just happened. My book had just come out and I was about to go on a big media tour to say that Bitcoin had been hijacked, and they arrested me and put me in jail in Barcelona for a whole month. They were furious that I was out on bail, but this was my first media interview in six months since I got out of jail.
This is a big event for the whole world, it's not just a US problem, it actually affects everyone on the planet. Just like Apple, people all over the world use iPhones, Apple is an American company, but It affects everyone on the planet. Every year when new Apple products come out, people all over the world, whether they are Americans or people from other places, can benefit. Americans can benefit, and everyone can benefit. The same is true for cryptocurrencies. Everyone on the planet, whether working in the United States, Spain, or elsewhere, will benefit.
By benefit, I mean people having more control over their lives, their finances, and their financial sovereignty. Governments hate this, which is why they want to stop it and why they don’t want you reading Hijacking Bitcoin. In this book you can find strong evidence of how Bitcoin has been hijacked and how those promoting Bitcoin today are actually doing the exact opposite of its original goals.
Host: I am a little surprised as to why the Spanish government approved the extradition request from the United States. The US government just gave Ukraine $100 billion without an audit. This is the most corrupt country in Europe. $100 billion, and it was not even audited. We know A lot of that money is stolen and they don't care. So it's ridiculous that the US government would be so angry about not paying US taxes since you are not a US citizen and don't live in the US. How can the Spanish government Why would they participate in this obvious miscarriage of justice? Why would they cooperate?
Roger: I can say no, not only because they are mad, but I am not a US citizen and I do not live in the US. It is completely crazy that they are claiming that I owe US taxes on my Bitcoin transactions.
When you see a witch hunt, they often make something up to catch their target. And the most common way they do that is by using the government’s tax code, which is so complicated that it’s hard for people to understand. Even those who want to follow every A professional in details, I have been through it myself, it is too complicated. If they really want to catch you, they will find a way. This is what they do time and time again.
Regarding the Spanish government, I have a very good lawyer here, Jaime, who is very optimistic that this can be handled successfully, but you can never be sure and it is very unsettling to live in this fear.
If I win and Spain decides not to extradite me, they will send me or my lawyer a letter saying "Congratulations, you are not extradited." But if I lose and they decide to extradite me, they will not Told me in advance.
Someone could knock on my door that morning and take me away and put me in jail without any notice. I couldn't return my rental car, tell my landlord, nothing. They would take me away. I was going to be sent away, and I had no idea when this would happen. It was really hard to bear the feeling of worrying every day whether this would be the last day I was not in prison. I might never be able to leave the prison again. Jail.
Still, I remain cautiously optimistic that Spain will see through this and understand that this is just a witch hunt by a bunch of jealous people. If I hadn’t been treated so unfairly the last time I ran for political office, I would have tried to change the system. Probably still is a proud American citizen.
My heart is still filled with the most American values. If you think about it, people always say "you gave up your American citizenship and you are not patriotic", which is not true at all! This is the core value of the founding of the United States. At that time, It was a group of British people who were unhappy with British law who gave up their citizenship and decided, "I don't want to join you anymore." So giving up citizenship is actually one of the most American things you can do.
I hope the Spanish government can understand that I have been promoting the benefits of cryptocurrencies to the world, while the US government is most worried about the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. Therefore, the US is even more averse to cryptocurrencies than other governments, which is obviously a common Politically motivated persecution.
I have faith and hope in the Spanish government's decision not to extradite me, and I hope they will make the right judgment and see the truth of the matter. But I also know that I may win the whole case at trial, but who knows? Even if I'm completely innocent, things are always full of uncertainties.
Maybe the Department of Justice will choose to drop all charges because they are totally baseless. We have fought the Supreme Court for my attorney-client privacy rights. When they finally get the documents, they may be disappointed because they contain I just told my lawyer to do a perfect job and make sure there were no problems. So this is a Supreme Court case. What people need to understand is that the IRS raided my tax law firm and violated the attorney- Client confidentiality. How can you raid a law firm and violate attorney-client privilege in the United States? This is what American propaganda has been telling you happens in Russia and other countries, but it's happening in the United States.
So, President Biden can do the right thing. He recently pardoned his son, and he can issue a preventive pardon for me. If Trump returns to office, he will understand this because he has been through it. A victim of a legal war. I believe he can see this too and issue a pardon for me and many others who deserve it. I am not the only one, in fact, many people have been persecuted at the dislike of the American regime. If you challenge the deep state they will come after you, I am just another target on that long list of people trying to destroy our lives.
Host: If I didn't work in this industry, I wouldn't believe these things. I would think that what you said is not true, but I have seen it too many times. In terms of specific questions, can you leave Spain now? Are you a prisoner in Spain?
Roger: I can't leave the country. I'm confined to a small island in Spain called Majorca, far from the Spanish mainland. I can't even leave the island, can't go out on a boat, can't do anything. I have to report to the court every hour to show my ID and prove that I am not a runaway. And any day could be my last day. If they decide to extradite me, they can come without warning and arrest me in Spain. , and then I might be sent to a prison in the United States. So, it's a very stressful way of life, worrying every day whether I will be arrested today. Spain is a great country and I love it here, but if It would be even better if you could stay here voluntarily.
Host: You have spent a month in a Spanish prison. What was that experience like?
Roger: My Spanish is much better than before, and because I have always been a very fresh and articulate person, a few other people in the prison began to suspect that I might be an undercover American spying on the prison. The prisoners were very wary of me and were reluctant to talk to me. Luckily, no one discovered who I really was or my relationship with cryptocurrencies. However, some people did become very suspicious of me, and I was eventually able to get out. What a relief.
The US government was very angry that Spain had given me bail. They wanted me to stay in a Spanish prison until everything was dealt with. You know, I didn’t spend much time in Spain, and it was not even my second time in Spain. I was there for a four-day stay. I was attending a cryptocurrency conference on privacy coins, discussing projects like Zeno and Monero. I was in the hotel lobby and after the meeting, a person I didn’t know Someone I knew came up to me with a thick Spanish accent and asked if I was Roger Ver. I said "yes", and then he asked me three or four more times until I was completely sure he was asking me.
At first I thought he was from the cryptocurrency world and wanted to chat with me, maybe get my book signed or discuss cryptocurrency or something. But then he pulled out his ID and told me he had an international I was arrested in the hotel lobby with a warrant from the Interpol and sent straight to a Spanish prison. Wow, I was totally not expecting this to happen, but it made me more determined because cryptocurrencies are very important to everyone. How could I remain silent about this good news and how important it is to spread the popularity of cryptocurrency to the world? So, congratulations to you, America, you have given me more motivation to Bringing cryptocurrency to the world.
