A man from Austin, Texas, Frank Richard Ahlgren III, has received a sentence of two years in prison for submitting fraudulent tax returns that underreported the capital gains from the sale of $3.7 million worth of bitcoin, as stated by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed today.
The DOJ reported that Ahlgren was an early investor in Bitcoin, starting his acquisitions in 2011. In 2015, he obtained 1,366 bitcoins through his Coinbase account, during which year the price of bitcoin peaked near $495 per coin. By October 2017, Bitcoin’s value had escalated, and Ahlgren sold 640 bitcoins at $5,807 each, resulting in a total gain of $3.7 million. He subsequently utilized the proceeds to buy a residence in Park City, Utah.
However, while submitting his 2017 tax return, Ahlgren misstated the gains by overstating the cost basis of his bitcoin acquisitions, alleging he had bought the coins at prices exceeding market values. This misrepresentation greatly diminished the declared capital gains.
Between 2018 and 2019, Ahlgren liquidated additional bitcoins valued over $650,000 but did not report these transactions on his tax returns at all. In a bid to hide his gains, he transferred funds through various wallets, exchanged bitcoin for cash in person, and utilized mixers to anonymize his bitcoin dealings.
In total, the DOJ indicated that Ahlgren’s actions led to a tax loss surpassing $1 million.
“Frank Ahlgren III reaped millions from buying and selling bitcoins,” remarked Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “But rather than fulfilling his tax obligations, he deceived his accountant regarding a substantial portion of his gains, and attempted to disguise another segment of his profits through advanced techniques aimed at obscuring his transactions on the bitcoin blockchain. That behavior today resulted in a two-year sentence.”
The U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman sentenced Ahlgren to two years in prison, followed by a year of supervised release. Furthermore, Ahlgren was directed to pay $1,095,031 in restitution to the U.S. government.
“Ahlgren will serve time because he presumed his cryptocurrency dealings were untraceable. This case illustrates that no one is above the law. My team at IRS Criminal Investigation possesses the expertise and resources to follow financial transactions, whether they involve dollars, pesos, or cryptocurrency,” stated Acting Special Agent in Charge Lucy Tan of IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI)’s Houston Field Office. “This case represents the first criminal tax evasion prosecution focused solely on cryptocurrency. Given the high prices of cryptocurrency, the temptation to evade taxes on its sale is also significant. Resist the temptation and steer clear of federal prison.”