Thread: Multimillionaire Renounced U.S. Citizenship, Slams ‘Tyrants’ Who Won’t Let Him Return

Roger Ver: Multimillionaire Renounced U.S. Citizenship, Slams ‘Tyrants’ Who Won’t Let Him Back In



Roger Ver, a multimillionaire investor who renounced his United States citizenship last year, tried to get a visa that would let him back into the country last week. Now the man known as the “Bitcoin Jesus” for his evangelical advocacy of the virtual, online currency is slamming U.S. authorities as “tyrants” because they refuse to grant his request to come back to the country where he grew up.

Ver, who had lived for the previous nine years in Tokyo, Japan, voluntarily gave up his U.S. citizenship, and with it his U.S. passport, in 204 to become a citizen of a tiny Caribbean island nation, the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, which allows wealthy immigrants citizenship in exchange for cash.

The country does not require its citizens to actually live there, only to invest $400,000 in the country or make a $250,000 donation. In exchange, rich investors can become citizens of a tropical paradise that charges them almost nothing in tax.

The 35-year millionaire later went into business selling St. Kitts citizenships to other members of the economic upper classes.

But when Ver last week applied for his visa to the United States, saying that he intended to speak at a bitcoin conference held in Miami starting January 16, U.S. immigration officials turned him away. The reason given by immigration officials was that Ver had not proven that he actually lived in St. Kitts.

Visa applicants are often required to show that they have sufficient “ties” to their home countries that would give them incentive to return there rather than stay in the U.S. as an illegal immigrants.

Ver says he provided documents saying that he lives full-time in Japan and runs businesses there, giving him incentive to leave the U.S., but he claims officials would not even look at those documents.

One of those businesses is peddling t-shirts featuring Ver’s favorite motto, “borders are imaginary lines,” shirts he is known to make a point of wearing as he travels internationally through airports.

However, at least with regards to the United States, Ver appears to have learned that borders are indeed quite real, at as far as those who make a point of publicly renouncing their citizenship while condemning U.S. government officials as “tyrants” is concerned.

Roger Ver says he is opposed not only to the idea of citizenship in the United States, but to the idea of citizenship at all.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1746049/rog...shrjpMqtIDa.99

Well, I have to laugh at this Cuckoo Bird, but still wonder why he's being treated one way and the rest of visa immigrants are obviously treated another. I'm quite certain that no one verifies where anyone else has actually lived whether it be a green card permanent resident, a temporary visa, a tourist visa, an agricultural visa, and most certainly the H1B and H2B visas. The very notion that we're paying US officials to find out where these nomads actually live from one day to the next is hilarious since what damn matter does it make? Does it matter whether a citizen of Guatemala has lived most of their lives in Mexico? Does it matter that a citizen of Ireland has lived most of their lives in England? Does it matter that a Canadian citizen has lived most of their lives in the United States?

Who cares where they've "lived"? What matters is do we have room for them here, and the answer is "no, we do not". "There is no more room in the Inn." Go home or go elsewhere or yes, in the case of Mr. Ver, stay in Japan or St. Kitts.

But, I don't like singling out a former US citizen, as despicable as this character seems to be, for treatment we know they aren't giving to everyone else for a visa to come here and make a speech.

It's probably because he is a Christian.

W

Bitcoin Venture Capitalist Roger Ver’s Journey to Anarchism

November 12th, 2012 Submitted by Roger Ver



My road to becoming a voluntarist began in junior high when I found a copy of the book Socialism by Ludwig von Mises. At the time I hadn’t given politics much thought and was a typical statist who assumed that there wasn’t any reason to limit the State’s power if it was being used to help people, but I also had a vague idea that Americans were opposed to solicalism.

When I initially started reading Socialism I thought it would be a pro-socialist book, but that it would be a good idea for me to hear the other side of the argument. By the time I finished it, I had learned that it is an impossibility for the government to centrally plan an economy as efficiently as the free market. After this book, I was inspired to read other books on economics by Ludwig von Mises, Adam Smith, Fredric Bastiat, Leonard Reed, Henry Hazlitt, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and just about anything else I could order from Laissez-Faire Books, since this was before the internet was wide spread. I learned that prices transmit the information required to most effectively allocate resources and that government intervention in the economy is preventing the world from being as wealthy as it should. The more I read the more appalled I became at the economic ignorance displayed by politicians and governments around the world. I became frustrated that anyone who spends the time to study economics can learn that nearly everything the government does makes the world a poorer place and that people, especially the poor, would be much better off if everyone were simply allowed to do anything that is peaceful.

At this point I had a firm grasp of the economic benefits brought to all by the free market, but it wasn’t until I found Murray Rothbard’s works that I started to think about the moral case for freedom. I devoured all of Rothbard’s books and was persuaded by the logic of his arguments. I remember being almost afraid to read such powerful truths. In all my years of schooling, no one before Rothbard had ever pointed out that taxation is the moral equivalent of theft, and the military draft is the moral equivalent of kidnapping and slavery.

It shattered my remaining hopes that the State could be morally justified. For the first time I saw them for the criminal band of thieves, slave masters, and murderers that they are. My life has never been the same since.

Up to this point everything I had learned seemed idealogical and somewhat abstract, but I felt the need to point out these truths to others. To help spread the ideas of liberty at the age of twenty, in the year 2000, I became a Libertarian candidate for California State Assembly. I vowed that if I were elected I would not accept any salary considering the money would necessarily have been taken from others by force in the form of taxation. I also promised to cut as many taxes and repeal as many laws as I could.

As part of the election process I was invited to participate in a debate at San Jose State University against the Republican and Democrat candidates. In the debate, I argued that taxation is theft, the war on drugs is immoral, and that the ATF are “a bunch of jack booted thugs and murderers” in memoriam to the people they slaughtered in Waco, Texas. Unbeknownst to me at the time there were several plain clothed ATF agents in the audience who became very upset with the things I was saying. They began looking into my background in the attempt to find dirt on me. I had already started a successful online business selling various computer components. In addition to computer parts, I, along with dozens of other resellers across the country, including Cabelas, were selling a product called a “Pest Control Report 2000.” It was basically a firecracker used by farmers to scare deer and birds away from their corn fields. While everyone else, including the manufacturer, were simply asked to stop selling them I became the only person in the nation to be prosecuted.

The reasoning for the prosecution became crystal clear after a meeting with the US prosecuting attorney and the under cover ATF agents from the debate. In the meeting, my attorney told the prosecutor that selling store bought firecrackers on Ebay isn’t a big deal and that we can pay a fine and do some community service to be done with everything. When the prosecutor agreed that that sounded reasonable one of the ATF agents pounded his hand on the table and shouted “…but you didn’t hear the things that he said!” This summed up very clearly that they were angry about the things that I had said, not the things that I had done.

After being told by the US attorney that I would be sent to jail for seven or eight years if I took my case to trial I signed a plea agreement. At the sentencing the judge asked me if anyone threatened or coerced me in any way to sign the plea agreement.

When I said “yes, absolutely,” the judge’s eyes became very wide and he asked “what do you mean?” I explained that the US attorney told me that he would send me to jail for seven or eight years if I didn’t sign the plea agreement. The judge responded that that was not what he was asking about, so I replied that I must not understand what it means to be threatened or coerced. The judge then proceeded to lecture me extensively on politics. He carried on about why government is so important and how “taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society” and that government is wonderful in general. He summed up his lecture by telling me that “I don’t want you to think that your political views have anything to do with why you are here today” and then sentenced me to serve ten months in federal prison.

After my release from Lompoc Federal Penitentiary I had to deal with three years of lies, insults, threats, and general harassment by the US Federal probation department. I moved to Japan on the very day my probation finished.

Currently, I am working full time to make the world a better, less violent place by promoting the use of Bitcoin. Bitcoin totally strips away the State’s control over money. It takes away the vast majority of its power to tax, regulate, or control the economy in any way. If you care about liberty, the nonaggression principle, or economic freedom in general you should do everything you can to use Bitcoin as often as possible in your daily life.

Roger Ver was born and raised in Silicon Valley and now resides in Tokyo. He is the CEO of MemoryDealers.com and directly employs thirty people in several countries around the world. Roger is also an investor in numerous Bitcoin startups. He spends his free time studying economics, moral philosophy, Bitcoin, and Brazilian Jujitsu.

http://dailyanarchist.com/2012/11/12...-to-anarchism/

So Ver's visa was denied because he's a libertarian and sold some type of firecracker device to run the animals out of the yard instead of shooting them? ATF who funnels thousands of US weapons down to Mexico to arm Drug Cartels targets some libertarian dude for prosecution by the US Attorney's office because he was selling a firecracker type pest control device to scare deer and other animals away from your house, pets, children, gardens and fields? And they spent time and money on an "undercover operation" at a public speaking event during a political election in California and they felt threatened because the guy opposed the ATF actions in Waco, Texas?!

Some days, I really wish I didn't know this much about the clear stupidity of our government. And this on the same day that I read that no high level official from the US attended the march against terrorism in France. Obama was home, Kerry was in India at a sell-out America entrepreneurship summit in some obscure diamond-producing state of India, and Holder while in France doing talk shows on television, skipped out early to miss the march.

Can we just once, just once, hear a report about our government where we can say, "Righto!"??? I believe that is rapidly becoming the New American Dream.

Roger Ver is an ANARCHIST

Bitcoin Venture Capitalist Roger Ver’s Journey to Anarchism

anarchist
[an-er-kist]
Spell Syllables

• Examples
• Word Origin

noun1.a person who advocates or believes in anarchy or anarchism.

2.a person who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed.

3.a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Roger Ver is an ANARCHIST

Bitcoin Venture Capitalist Roger Ver’s Journey to Anarchism

There's nothing in his history or statements let alone any actions that support the charge of being an anarchist. Only an article you found with a mis-title that he's an anarchist when according to the article itself, he's a libertarian who wants to make the world a better less violent place. But hey, when you have some evidence that he wants to overthrow governments with violence and has committed or planned some violent acts in that regard, please do let us know.

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Roger Ver, ex-con? October 28, 2012, 09:36:49 AM

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The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced today that Roger Ver was sentenced to 10 months in prison for selling explosives on the online auction site, eBay.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel following a guilty plea on one count of dealing in explosives without a license in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 842(a)(1);
one count of illegally storing explosives in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 842(j);
and one count of mailing injurious articles in violation Title 18, United States Code, Section 1716.

Mr. Ver, 22, of San Jose, was charged in an information filed in federal district court on August 8, 2001. According to the plea agreement, Mr. Ver admitted to engaging in the business of selling explosives without a license from January 1999 through August 2000. According to the information and plea agreement, Mr. Ver sold explosive devices described as "Pest Control Report 2000" on the online auction site eBay.

He purchased approximately 49 pounds of the devices from a supplier in South Carolina, and sold at least 14 pounds of the devices to bidders on eBay.

While engaging in the business of selling explosive devices, Mr. Ver stored the explosives in a residential apartment building and mailed the devices via the United States Mail in a manner contrary to Postal Service regulations.

Judge Fogel sentenced the Defendant to 10 months in federal prison, a fine of $2,000, as well as a three-year period of supervised release. The Defendant will begin serving the sentence on August 2, 2002. The prosecution was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Scott Frewing is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Legal Assistant Lauri Gomez.

via justice.gov.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=120969.0