'Bitcoin Jesus' Roger Ver calls rich to his tax-free paradise

He’s known as Bitcoin Jesus in the world of cyber-currencies. Meet Roger Ver, ex-U.S. citizen, ex-convict, millionaire investor, self-described libertarian and founder of Passports for Bitcoin.com. The ever-expanding universe of what you can buy with bitcoins includes a hotel stay in Rome, a kimono in Tokyo, and cable TV in the US. Ver, a pioneer investor in bitcoin startups, now says he can add citizenship to the list.

Specifically, that’s the right to live in the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis, two sun-kissed islands a three-hour flight from Miami. St Kitts has run an invest-and-become-a-citizen program since 1984, making it the oldest of its kind, says the country’s website.

Plunk down $400,000 for real estate and you get a passport that allows visa-free travel to 120 countries. There are no taxes on personal income or capital gains and the islands’ restrictive disclosure laws offer shelter from outside scrutiny, according to the Tax Justice Network, a think tank that studies secrecy jurisdictions.

Ver’s website, in English, Russian and Chinese, offers a way to purchase a piece of that paradise with bitcoins. He says it will help people who are hemmed in by government restrictions on cash transactions.

Trader, Hacker, Boxer

A trim 35-year-old with a crew cut, in a black polo shirt and slacks, Ver looked a little like an electronics salesman at a bigbox retailer. Still, a crowd of followers hung on his every word. A former derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, a hacker, and a professional boxer were all there to pitch ideas or talk bitcoin with the master.

Ver got rich investing in bitcoin early and has become a regular speaker at industry conferences. He’s provided seed funds for a dozen prominent startups including Kraken, an exchange where people buy and sell the digital currency, and Blockchain, an online wallet used to store it.

Ver said he earned his biblical moniker by telling anyone who would listen about bitcoin well before other venture capital companies paid any attention to the digital currency. He’s been called Bitcoin Jesus by CNBC, Salon.com and Wired.

Bitcoin was invented in 2008 as a currency that could be used without government oversight. That’s drawn people who want to trade illicit goods like drugs and guns. It’s also gained support from libertarians like Peter Thiel, the billionaire cofounder of PayPal who plans to build an artificial island where people can do whatever they want.

Ver’s passport site, his latest venture, is a scaled down version of that ideal. “St. Kitts’ government is much more libertarian compared with the US,” Ver said. “It’s not even close. So all these early bitcoin adopters, of course if they have the means, they’d rather be a citizen of St. Kitts.”

In practical terms, a person in Beijing can buy bitcoins at home through BTC China, OKCoin or numerous other exchanges. With a few swipes on a smartphone, the money can then be beamed to St. Kitts with no government on Earth the wiser.

The US lost its allure for Ver after he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison after selling about 14 pounds of explosive without a license on the EBay auction site. The product, “Pest Control Report 2000,” was basically a firecracker to scare birds away from cornfields, Ver says.

Ver moved to Tokyo after finishing probation in 2006. He got his St. Kitts passport on Feb. 13, 2014, and abandoned his US citizenship by the end of the month.

Although Ver’s computer parts business made him a millionaire by the time he was 25, the real money came after he bought tens of thousands of bitcoins in 2011. They cost about $1 each then. Today they trade at about $598, according to the CoinDesk price index.

Bitcoin Evangelist

One of the people who got a dose of Ver’s sermons was the agent who processed his application for citizenship, Paul Bilzerian. Bilzerian is a former corporate raider who moved to St. Kitts after long battles with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and two stints in prison for securities fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government of millions.

The two men bonded over the belief they’d been targeted by US authorities, according to Ver. Together, they startedpassportsforbitcoin. com in April, Ver said.