- Ilya Borisov is an artist from Latvia. Under his pseudonym “Shvembldr” he sold digital images for almost 8.7 million US dollars in the NFT hype.
- In order to correctly tax his profit, he claims to have contacted the local authorities. They advised him to tax his NFT profits as “self-employment income”. He then paid 2.2 million US dollars to the Latvian state.
- Then, in February of this year, he was shocked when the Latvian authorities had frozen his entire fortune. The charge: money laundering.
- Borisov defends himself legally. Before the Riga Regional Court, he obtained an end to the investigation and a reversal of the confiscation of his NFT sales – but this was not implemented by the authority.
- Instead, two new cases are being instituted against him. Again on suspicion of money laundering.
- Borisov appealed against this, but so far without success. The NFT funds remain frozen so far.
- In addition, the Latvian has its own website set up to show the chronology of events.
- In addition to getting his money back, Borisov says he wants to save other NFT artists from a similar fate.
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