Peter Schiff’s Euro Pacific Bank is under investigation for tax evasion by the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
This was revealed by The Age, according to which the ATO has issued a subpoena and sent several letters around the world.
This investigation was aimed at several alleged millionaire tax evaders, including 100 who had one thing in common: they were clients of Euro Pacific Bank.
The Age writes:
“Euro Pacific became the target of Operation Atlantis, the world’s largest tax evasion probe”.
Schiff’s response came in the form of an interview on the famous television programme 60 Minutes Australia in which he said the authorities will find nothing to implicate the bank in these crimes.
https://twitter.com/60Mins/status/1317769169543131136
Schiff is known in the crypto world for being a fierce critic of Bitcoin, so much so that he speculated long ago that President Trump’s statements about Bitcoin being used primarily for illegal conduct, drug trafficking, and other illegal activities were a precursor to a federal legislative crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
In fact, Schiff and Trump are not the only ones who believe that Bitcoin is used primarily for illicit purposes and that it should be stopped somehow, but often those who make such assumptions do not seem to have the same kind of attention to similar uses of other assets, primarily the same US dollar.
Peter Schiff, McAfee and tax evasion
In particular, the issue of tax evasion has emerged several times within the crypto sector, mainly due to the events of the famous crypto influencer John McAfee.
The point, as far as bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are concerned, is the possibility of using them to carry out anonymous operations capable of hiding revenues deriving from taxable profits.
However, it is worth saying that according to various investigations, cryptocurrencies are not the most used form of money to evade taxes, but it is rather the same fiat currencies and in particular the American dollar.
As the ATO survey reveals, the large movements of money at a global level, which are used to subtract from the tax authorities taxable income on which it would be obligatory to pay taxes, are executed in fiat currencies. Regardless of whether or not Schiff and his bank are guilty of tax evasion, it is very clear that this is not a problem specifically related to cryptocurrencies, but rather a problem that exploits some flaws in the traditional financial system that still uses traditional fiat currencies.
It cannot be excluded that this kind of investigation favours the development and release of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), which are much more traceable than traditional fiat money and therefore much more difficult to hide.
