- 08 Jan 2025 05:46
#15335349
An owner of Bitcoin has been ordered to surrender his crypto wallet private keys and provide his access codes, by a U.S. federal judge.
The man sold Bitcoin for more than he had paid for it, and therefore was legally obligated to pay taxes on his increase. However, the man used tricks to falsely claim he originally paid more for the Bitcoin than he actually did, so he could pay the government a little over $1 million less in taxes than he should have paid.
This is an interesting case where a man is being legally threatened if he does not hand over access to all his money and provide his passcodes.
The amount of Bitcoin in his accounts are probably worth much more than the amount of money he is obligated to pay to the government.
This order from the judge says the government will only hold custody of his Bitcoin until the man pays the required restitution amount, but that amount has not been fully decided yet.
I see some huge concerns with this, and this type of order could set a problematic legal precedent.
Basically, the court is threatening to hold the man in jail unless he gives up information and access codes to all his Bitcoin.
Some people might not realize that government can do this. Other people might not realize the reason why government shouldn't do this.
In my opinion, the judge should have made an alternative option in the order that would have allowed the man not to have to give up his private keys and access codes if he immediately had a large amount of money transferred into the custody of the court that would be likely to fully cover what the restitution amount will be.
It's true he seems to have committed the crime of not paying his taxes, but the government's level of control should not unnecessarily extend to large amounts of hidden away valuables he does not owe to the government.
This almost seems like extortion and threats, to gain control over hidden money, and forcing someone to share their password codes, forcing them to give up and reveal information.
(Bitcoin does ultimately represent just a form of information data, since it's not really a physical thing in itself)
In addition, the order bans him from moving any of his cryptocurrency without special court approval and orders him to surrender over to the court any devices used to store his cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin investor ordered to hand over crypto keys in landmark tax case, Felix Ng, Cointelegraph.com, January 7, 2024
(free article here for limited time)
The defendant is Frank Richard Ahlgren III. The judge is Robert Pitman, court order was issued January 6, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
related older thread: Man jailed for refusing to give police password to personal computer files (in 'Anarchism' section, 28 Oct 2019)
The man sold Bitcoin for more than he had paid for it, and therefore was legally obligated to pay taxes on his increase. However, the man used tricks to falsely claim he originally paid more for the Bitcoin than he actually did, so he could pay the government a little over $1 million less in taxes than he should have paid.
This is an interesting case where a man is being legally threatened if he does not hand over access to all his money and provide his passcodes.
The amount of Bitcoin in his accounts are probably worth much more than the amount of money he is obligated to pay to the government.
This order from the judge says the government will only hold custody of his Bitcoin until the man pays the required restitution amount, but that amount has not been fully decided yet.
I see some huge concerns with this, and this type of order could set a problematic legal precedent.
Basically, the court is threatening to hold the man in jail unless he gives up information and access codes to all his Bitcoin.
Some people might not realize that government can do this. Other people might not realize the reason why government shouldn't do this.
In my opinion, the judge should have made an alternative option in the order that would have allowed the man not to have to give up his private keys and access codes if he immediately had a large amount of money transferred into the custody of the court that would be likely to fully cover what the restitution amount will be.
It's true he seems to have committed the crime of not paying his taxes, but the government's level of control should not unnecessarily extend to large amounts of hidden away valuables he does not owe to the government.
This almost seems like extortion and threats, to gain control over hidden money, and forcing someone to share their password codes, forcing them to give up and reveal information.
(Bitcoin does ultimately represent just a form of information data, since it's not really a physical thing in itself)
In addition, the order bans him from moving any of his cryptocurrency without special court approval and orders him to surrender over to the court any devices used to store his cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin investor ordered to hand over crypto keys in landmark tax case, Felix Ng, Cointelegraph.com, January 7, 2024
(free article here for limited time)
The defendant is Frank Richard Ahlgren III. The judge is Robert Pitman, court order was issued January 6, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
related older thread: Man jailed for refusing to give police password to personal computer files (in 'Anarchism' section, 28 Oct 2019)
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