The American senator Ron Wyden, the main Democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, continues his research on whether Dan Morehead, the founder of the Panthera Capital Asset Manager, sought to avoid paying taxes through his transfer to Puerto Rico.
Wyden’s investigation into whether Morehead committed fiscal evasion in January, and focuses on how the founder of Pantera reported taxes about his part of the income after a large sale of cryptography by the company. According to a press release, Wyden is looking specifically if Morehead “misrepresent[ed] His state of residence “when Pantera generated more than $ 1 billion in capital gains of cryptography sales by stating that their sales profits arrived while in Puerto Rico. Residents of the United States territory do not pay the income tax for capital gains.
“I understand that their part of these profits … were hundreds of millions of dollars,” Wyden said in La Carta, sent on Wednesday. “I also understand that you treated everything [gain] As exempt from the US tax, despite the fact that the lion part of these profits accumulated while residing in California. These are serious accusations of potential abuse of Puerto Rico’s tax incentives to avoid the payment of US taxes that must be addressed immediately. “
Wyden’s letter claimed that Morehead’s lawyers “have disappeared almost” despite initially participating with their staff. He also said in the letter that he believes that Morehead was advised by Jeffrey Rubinger, a Miami -based lawyer who advised another client that “he recently declared himself guilty of a tax fraud scheme” linked to the same tax rules of Puerto Rico.
A Panther spokesman referred Coindesk to a previous statement from Morehead, when he told the New York Times in a statement earlier this year that “I think I act properly with respect to my taxes.”
Wyden’s investigation does not have all the weight of an investigation carried out by the Senate Finance Committee at this time, since the Democrats are the minority party in the president of the Senate and the Mike Crapo committee, the main republican of the committee, does not seem to have joined in the investigation at this time.
Wyden’s letter occurred on the same day that the Senate Finance Committee specifically held an audience on cryptographic tax issues. The witnesses of the audience warned that IRS can soon face a fiscal reports flood.
Read more: the United States Senate Hearing on cryptographic taxes reveals headaches for both the industry and IRS
