Key Takeaways
- The District of Columbia is suing Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy for alleged tax fraud.
- D.C. Lawyer Basic Karl Racine introduced the go well with on Twitter at present, accusing Saylor of avoiding as a lot as ten years’ value of revenue taxes.
- MicroStrategy inventory dropped 5% as information of the costs broke.
Share this text
Billionaire Bitcoin whale Michael Saylor is being sued by the District of Columbia, the place he at present resides, for tax fraud. D.C. Lawyer Basic Karl Racine made the announcement Wednesday on Twitter.
Saylor Faces Tax Fraud Go well with
One among Bitcoin’s greatest whales has some authorized bother to deal with.
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor is dealing with a lawsuit on tax fraud allegations, Washington D.C. Lawyer Basic Karl Racine introduced Wednesday.
NEW: At this time, we’re suing Michael Saylor – a billionaire tech government who has lived within the District for greater than a decade however has by no means paid any DC revenue taxes – for tax fraud.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) August 31, 2022
“At this time, we’re suing Michael Saylor – a billionaire tech government who has lived within the District for greater than a decade however has by no means paid any DC revenue taxes – for tax fraud,” Racine wrote in a tweet.
Racine added that Washington D.C. was additionally suing MicroStrategy “for conspiring to assist [Saylor] evade taxes he legally owes on lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} he’s earned whereas residing in DC.”
Michael Saylor is most notable within the crypto area for his ongoing and vocal public help for Bitcoin. He often seems on the crypto convention circuits to tout the virtues of the market’s flagship cryptocurrency and encourage attendees to build up as a lot as doable.
On this regard, Saylor places his cash the place his mouth is; his firm, MicroStrategy, which originated as a enterprise intelligence software program firm, has pivoted towards a Bitcoin accumulation technique below Saylor’s management. At first of the month, Saylor stepped apart as MicroStrategy’s CEO however remained chairman of the board; he additionally assumed a substantive government place specializing in “Bitcoin acquisition technique and associated Bitcoin advocacy initiatives.”
This isn’t the primary time that Saylor and his firm have run into bother with legislation enforcement. In 2000, the Securities and Trade Fee introduced civil accounting fraud costs towards MicroStrategy for misrepresenting the corporate’s monetary info for 2 years. That case ended with a settlement that resulted in Saylor personally disgorging $8.2 million and paying a further $350,000 in penalties.
MicroStrategy shares dropped 6% upon information of the lawsuit.
Disclosure: On the time of writing, the authors of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and a number of other different cryptocurrencies. This story is breaking and shall be up to date as additional particulars emerge.
