Texan sentenced to two years imprisonment for not declaring Bitcoin profits

The crypto-friendly Trump administration has yet to start and in the meantime the show is still being run by the crypto-averse government of Joe Biden. His Justice Department this week sentenced a Texas man to two years in prison for ‘forgetting’ to declare his Bitcoin profits correctly. The American state lost out on 1 million dollars.

Lying on your taxes about your crypto profits can apparently cost you dearly in the United States.

Tax fraud

It is the first case of tax fraud due to crypto profits in the United States, and the Justice Department immediately issues a stark warning.

Frank Richard Ahlgren was sentenced this week to two years imprisonment by a judge in Austin, Texas, for “forgetting” to declare the correct profit on his Bitcoins, which he bought in 2011 and 2015.

The man earned $3.7 million from that sale and reported only half of that amount to his accountant.

An Austin, Texas, man was sentenced today to two years in prison for filing a tax return that falsely underreported the capital gains he earned from selling $3.7 million in bitcoins. This case marks the first criminal tax evasion prosecution centered solely on cryptocurrency in…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) December 13, 2024

He also tried to embezzle some of the Bitcoin sales through the use of crypto mixers.

With the money Frank earned he bought a gigantic villa in the state of Utah, probably hoping that the tax authorities of Texas would not communicate with those of Utah.

However, they did and found that Frank had made a lot more Bitcoin profits than he had officially admitted. The man has already indicated that he will appeal against the conviction.