Matt “Lord” Argall briefly strode into the glare of Washington’s pardon politics in 2025 as a self-styled broker promising clemency to Roger Ver, but the gambit collapsed, just as Ver reportedly struck a $48 million deal with the Department of Justice to resolve his legal trouble.
Roger Ver, once a vanguard of the early Bitcoin era, faced a formidable indictment in April 2024 charging him with tax evasion, mail fraud, and false returns. Prosecutors alleged he hid roughly $48 million in taxes tied to his crypto holdings, undervaluing assets and failing to comply with “exit tax” rules after renouncing U.S. citizenship. For months, his team navigated both courtroom strategies and political outreach, and that’s where Argall sought to insert himself.
Valerie Haney, Matt Argall (TikTok)
Argall, a Florida entrepreneur who adopted the moniker “Lord Argall,” who is usually accompanied by his girlfriend Valerie Haney, approached Ver early in 2025 claiming he could steer a clemency pathway straight into the Trump White House. In communications later obtained by Bloomberg, Argall offered a bold, two-tiered fee: $10 million up front plus $20 million contingent on securing a pardon. He framed the cost as a “success fee” for leveraging political connections and influence.
To reinforce credibility, Argall dangled alleged ties to Republican fixers, including references to Robert Wasinger, and enlisted Brock Pierce, a known crypto entrepreneur, as a collaborator. The scheme reportedly germinated over a lobster dinner in Puerto Rico. Argall even introduced Ver to Jesse Binnall, a conservative attorney previously associated with Trump, though Binnall later denied involvement in the fee negotiations.
But Argall’s confidence hinged on leverage he couldn’t deliver. The Trump White House quickly denied any connection. A spokesperson cautioned that “outside grifters overstating access to the White House” would discover the pardon process was not a market with open stalls. In the end, nowhere in the public record did funds ever move. Ver’s lawyers maintain the clemency pitch never bore fruit.
In a striking turn, Ver appears now to have abandoned the clemency chase altogether. In October 2025, reports surfaced that he reached a tentative $48 million settlement with the DOJ, a deferred-prosecution pact that, if finalized, would resolve his case without prison time. While the deal is still subject to court approval and potential changes, the shift is notable: Ver has traded a speculative political bet for a concrete legal accord.
The convergence of these threads casts Argall’s role in sharp relief. His pardon pitch now reads less like an audacious rescue and more like an opportunistic play on Ver’s vulnerability. As Ver moves ahead to close his case through settlement, the clemency gambit seems destined to fade from memory — remembered perhaps as a cautionary episode in the murky overlap of money, influence, and politics.
With material from: Bloomberg, New York Times
