American economist and prominent bitcoin and cryptocurrency His opponent, Peter Schiff, announced that he would fight to be allowed to sell the Euro Pacific International Bank he founded in Puerto Rico.
Schiff is trying to bail out the Puerto Rican bank under investigation, although authorities have suspended the bank’s operations as part of an ongoing investigation, the Associated Press reported.
The bank was licensed to operate on the territory of the United States in 2017 and had created approximately 15,000 accounts in the following two years.
But the bank’s deposits fell by as much as $150 million and lost customers, with the intervention of the Joint Chief of Global Tax Enforcement, a multinational government agency that controls tax crimes and money laundering.
The agency’s intervention had come two years ago to “stop suspicion of offshore tax evasion and money laundering by the bank”.
Bitcoin Enemy Peter Schiff Says He’s Complying With The Law
Regarding the allegations that offshore tax evasion was facilitated, Schiff noted that although he disliked other restrictions and taxes as well as anti-money laundering legislation, he still complied with them.
The well-known analyst included the following in his statements:
“We lost a lot of things because people were afraid. Since I’m so willing to publicly criticize the rules, you better believe I did my best not to break them.”
According to Schiff, the bank was also never subject to an investigation. It is said that agents from the US tax agency IRS visited the bank in 2020 and reported that they were examining the bank’s customers.
“Our compatibility is very solid and we are closing accounts very quickly,” Schiff said in the statement. In addition, Schiff said he would never accept clients linked to cryptocurrencies, drugs or other industries:
“I did everything by the book and it cost me a fortune. It was a huge shock to me that they did that.”
*Not investment advice.