Infinite Ties, an online community built for client accounting services professionals in the U.S., announced the official launch of its site at infinite-ties.com. 

The website was created to foster collaboration and the sharing of best practices and resources around CAS.

The founders of Infinite Ties (named for “Technology, Information, Education that leads to Success”) were early adopters in the CAS space.

“The CAS community can often feel like an island,” said co-founder Christine Triantos in a statement. “We recognize the need for CAS members to objectively discuss what’s working, what’s not working, technology solutions, and best practices. Infinite Ties aims to bridge these gaps and create a supportive, connected community.”

The online community’s training resources include monthly webinars, templates for common CAS practice requirements, and interactive forums.

“We have trained team members on specific CAS theory and techniques, and we also understand that finding CAS-specific training can be difficult,” Triantos stated. “Our goal is to provide accessible, high-quality training and resources to help CAS professionals excel.”

“We are passionate about CAS and wholeheartedly want to help CAS professionals be rockstars in this space,” co-founder Michelle Welch said in a statement. “Infinite Ties is not just a platform; it’s a movement towards excellence and innovation in CAS. We’re excited to see the positive impact it will have on the industry.”

Membership is $99 per month for up to five team members and more information is available on the website.

Anthony Kwan/Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloom

Lawyers for Roger Ver, the cryptocurrency advocate known as Bitcoin Jesus, urged a U.S. judge to dismiss his tax evasion indictment in their first court filing since his April arrest in Spain. 

U.S. prosecutors charged Ver, 45, with evading more than $48 million in taxes for selling $240 million in tokens and with filing a false “exit tax” return after he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014. The legal salvo came as Ver awaits a Spanish judge’s decision on whether he must be extradited to face the most prominent U.S. tax case dealing only with crypto assets. 

Ver’s lawyers argued Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court that the exit tax, applied by the Internal Revenue Service to U.S. citizens who expatriate with more than $2 million in assets, is unconstitutional and “impermissibly vague.” They said prosecutors improperly interrogated a Ver lawyer and ignored documents showing he had no intent to break the law. 

The exit tax improperly demands “millions of dollars from expatriates in taxation that would not apply to anyone else,” Ver’s lawyers wrote. 

Ver, a U.S. expatriate, awaits a Spanish judge’s decision over whether he will be extradited to America to face tax fraud charges. As he planned to expatriate, prosecutors allege, Ver hid the number and value of Bitcoin he owned and controlled personally and through his California-based companies, MemoryDealers and Agilestar. Ver worked with a law firm and appraisers on the exit tax, but gave them false information about his Bitcoin, and an exit tax return filed in 2016 failed to report the Bitcoin he owned personally while underreporting the value of his companies, prosecutors charge.

But Ver’s lawyers argued that prosecutors ignored evidence showing he had no intent to violate U.S. tax law. 

“I want to make sure that my exit tax payments are as clean as possible, with no room to have trouble from the IRS in the future,” Ver wrote in a 2013 email, according to the filing. 

The indictment also alleges Ver “fraudulently misrepresented and concealed” from the IRS the crypto that his companies sold in 2017 for about $240 million. But the filing claims Ver and his prior lawyers tried to figure out what he owed the U.S. amid unclear guidance on how the tax laws applied to crypto. 

“Although Ver had long engaged the government in discussions regarding a civil resolution of this matter, the government has never been able to articulate the taxes purportedly owed,” they wrote. “Instead of continuing those discussions in good faith, but while Ver’s prior counsel remained under the impression that discussions were ongoing,” the U.S. announced his indictment.

Ver’s lawyers also argued that IRS agents violated his attorney-client privilege in December 2017 by conducting an unannounced interview of one of his tax lawyers. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case on the issue that didn’t name the parties but matched Ver’s circumstances. The court dropped that case in 2023 without issuing a ruling. 

In an interview with Bloomberg New in late October, Ver said he spent a month in jail before getting out on bail and moving to Mallorca, where he’s received a steady stream of visitors. An outspoken critic of the U.S. government, he said he’s being persecuted by prosecutors.

“They don’t like me, and they don’t like my political views, and they just came at me every which way,” Ver said.  

Ver said he’s spending his days talking to his lawyers on Zoom, practicing Brazilian jiujitsu and entertaining friends visiting from overseas. He’s attended Bitcoin meetups, where he said he was well received.

When crypto began, Ver embraced its promise. He started buying Bitcoin in 2011 for less than $1, spreading the vision of using crypto and touting its potential. He earned the “Bitcoin Jesus” moniker for his evangelical-like advocacy of the original cryptocurrency.  

He was an early investor in Blockchain.com, a crypto company once valued at $14 billion, payment processor BitPay and digital-asset firm Ripple. When the Bitcoin network underwent a software upgrade he opposed in 2017, Ver broke with the community, switching to a split-off called Bitcoin Cash. He said his current holdings include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Zano.

A Justice Department representative declined to comment.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board today announced settled disciplinary orders sanctioning Raines & Fischer and three of its partners — William Fischer, Brian Uhlman and Steven Sarrel — for attempting to deceive PCAOB inspection staff and other violations.

Firm personnel improperly created and modified workpapers after document completion dates and in anticipation of PCAOB inspections in 2020 and 2022, violating PCAOB Rule 4006, Duty to Cooperate with Inspectors, and AS 1215, Audit Documentation. The personnel concealed the altered workpapers before they were provided to inspectors, taking steps such as changing computer clocks and printing documents to PDF. 

“Attempting to deceive the PCAOB’s inspection staff undermines investor protection,” PCAOB Chair Erica Williams said in a statement. “To protect investors and safeguard the integrity of the inspection process, the PCAOB will continue to pursue disciplinary action against firms and individuals that fail to cooperate with inspections.”

Sarrel and Uhlman also violated Rule 4006. Sarrel was responsible for the alteration of workpapers prior to the 2020 inspection of a broker-dealer engagement for which he was engagement partner. Uhlman was responsible for the alteration of workpapers prior to the 2022 inspection of two broker-dealer engagements for which he was engagement partner. Neither partners informed the inspectors of the alterations, despite participating in meetings with PCAOB staff during the inspections.

Fischer was the firm’s managing partner and in charge of its audit department and quality control during this period. He took no action, despite being aware in both instances of the alterations, and failed to prevent the altered workpapers from being provided to PCAOB staff.

The PCAOB found that Raines & Fischer’s quality control system was deficient. The firm also violated documentation standards by failing to assemble for retention complete and final sets of workpapers for four broker-dealer engagements in addition to the three subject to inspection. The firm also repeatedly violated PCAOB Rule 2201 by falling to timely file its Form 2 for four consecutive years.

Uhlman additionally failed to comply with audit and attestation standards related to the audit and examination of carrying a broker-dealer. During that engagement, he failed to test key internal controls over compliance and supplemental information included in the schedules supporting the broker-dealer’s financial statements.

Fischer also violated AS 1220, Engagement Quality Review, by falling to perform adequate engagement quality reviews for seven broker-dealer engagements. He also violated PCAOB Rule 3502, Responsibility Not to Knowingly or Recklessly Contribute to Violations, by contributing to the firm’s noncooperation for both inspections and its violations of rules and standards.

“These respondents were responsible for a host of audit and attestation deficiencies and compounded those violations with their attempts to conceal the shortcomings in their work from the PCAOB’s inspectors. That misconduct warrants the strong sanctions imposed in the orders issued by the Board today,” Robert Rice, director of the PCAOB’s Division of Enforcement and Investigations, said in a statement.

The sanction is the latest in a long line of increased enforcement efforts by the PCAOB, most recently including revoking a firm’s registration and barring its sole partner for audit quality and control failures on Tuesday. In November, it sanctioned five firms for reporting violations. In September, it settled sanctions against four firms for failing to make required communications with audit committees, as well as one firm for violating reporting requirements. The board previously sanctioned Baker Tilly, Grant Thornton Bharat, Mazars and SW Audit in February, as well as three firms in November 2023 and five firms in July 2023.

Without admitting or denying the findings, all four respondents consented to their respective orders:

• Censure each respondent;
• Permanently revoke the Firm’s registration;
• Bar Uhlman from associating with a PCAOB-registered firm with a right to petition the Board to terminate the bar after five years (and requiring additional CPE requirements prior to petitioning);
• Bar Fischer and Sarrel from associating with a registered firm with the right to petition to terminate the bars after three years; and,
• Impose civil money penalties of $200,000 on the Firm, $125,000 on Uhlman, $75,000 on Fischer, and $65,000 on Sarrel.