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Crypto Billionaire Michael Saylor Pays $40 Million to Settle DC Tax Fraud Case
Michael Saylor admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.
Billionaire Bitcoin Bull and MicroStrategy Co-Founder Michael Saylor Will Pay $40 Million to Settle Lawsuit Accusing Him committed massive tax fraud by lying to authorities for years about where he livedthe Washington D.C. district attorney’s office said Monday.
D.C. prosecutors alleged that MicroStrategy had helped Saylor evade more than $25 million in local income taxes from 2005 to 2022 through falsified documents and returns.
The tech executive reportedly claimed to live in Florida or Virginia despite residing in a luxury waterfront penthouse in the capital’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood.
Michael Saylor admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. REUTERS
Prosecutors said he was also “docking multiple yachts on the borough’s Potomac Riverfront.”
Neither Saylor nor MicroStrategy admitted any wrongdoing or violations of law in the settlement, the company said in a statement.
MicroStrategy shares rose 8% to about $1,625 per share in early trading Monday.
Saylor, who will step down as CEO of MicroStrategy in 2022, “will pay the entire settlement amount to the district and the company will not be obligated to make any contribution to the settlement payment.”
The Post has reached out to MicroStrategy for further comment.
“Florida remains my home today, and I continue to dispute the allegation that I was ever a resident of the District of Columbia,” Saylor said in a statement to the New York Times, which first reported the deal. “I have agreed to settle this matter to avoid the ongoing burden of litigation on friends, family and myself.”
The Washington District Attorney’s Office alleged that Saylor had spent millions to purchase three luxury condominium units “for the purpose of combining them into a 7,000-square-foot residence overlooking the Potomac River” from 2006 to 2008.
Prosecutors said Saylor lied about living in other states when he actually resided in Washington DC. REUTERS
The billionaire would continue to live in the district aboard one of his yachts while renovations were underway on his planned residence, nicknamed “Trigate”.
Saylor’s social media posts were cited in the amended complaint detailing the alleged tax fraud scheme.
In March 2012, Saylor posted a photo on Facebook with the caption “viewed from my Georgetown balcony this morning.”
A few months later, in September 2012, Saylor posted that she was “Looking wistfully at my future home while I wait for James to crack the whip on the contractors and send in the cats. I wonder if Tony Stark would be that patient…”
The name “James” was a reference to the architect of the attic, James Augustus Seymour Van Wynen.
“Now I just need to finish renovating the apartment so I can move in again. For now maybe I’ll put up a tent outside on the deck,” Saylor wrote at the time.
The story continues
Michael Saylor is known as one of the leading proponents of bitcoin. REUTERS
Saylor’s personal fortune has increased in recent months along with a significant increase in the price of bitcoin.
Saylor is worth about $4.8 billion as of Monday, according to Forbes.
“No one in the District of Columbia is above the law, no matter how rich or powerful they may be,” Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement published on X.
Schwalb described the settlement as “the largest income tax fraud recovery in Washington history.”