Last Updated: 1 September 2022
Michael Saylor and his company MicroStrategy are facing a number of lawsuits. Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced that Saylor and his company are suspected of tax evasion.
Within 2 years, the company collected a total of over 129,000 bitcoin(!). It is still unclear how exactly this indictment will affect MicroStrategy and the bitcoin billions. In any case, it is a troubled time. MicroStrategy and Saylor are all-in on bitcoin.
According to Racine, this is a tax debt of hundreds of millions of dollars. The link to bitcoin in this story is relatively easy to make: MicroStartegy is one of the biggest bitcoin whales.
We’re also suing his company, MicroStrategy, for conspiring to help him evade taxes he legally owes on hundreds of millions of dollars he’s earned while living in DC.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) August 31, 2022
Racine also warns other possible tax evaders in a series of tweets.
With this lawsuit, we’re putting residents and employers on notice that if you enjoy all the benefits of living in our great city while refusing to pay your fair share in taxes, we will hold you accountable.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) August 31, 2022
Michael Saylor and bitcoin
MicroStrategy was a relatively unknown software company. The company started in 1989 and could never get close to the really big tech giants. Under the leadership of Michael Saylor, the company made a huge U-turn in 2020: bitcoin was to become the standard.
Saylor also recently stepped down as CEO of ‘his’ MicroStrategy. He said he wanted to focus more on bitcoin.
For now, it does not appear that this has anything to do with the recent move to bitcoin. It will, however, cause unrest within the company.
At the same time, Saylor was already a billionaire before his bitcoin adventure. It will be a (long) battle between lawyers on both sides.
