Waylon Wilcox, a 45-year-old resident of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to charges of filing false income tax returns, as declared by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Wilcox appeared in federal court on April 9, 2025, before Senior U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion. The charges are related to underreporting over $13 million in income from digital artwork sales.
Court records indicate that, on April 10, 2022, in Cumberland County, Wilcox filed a tax return for 2021 that underreported his income by approximately $8.5 million, lowering his owed taxes by about $2.18 million. Similarly, on October 10, 2023, Wilcox’s 2022 tax return omitted approximately $4.6 million, reducing his tax liability by approximately $1.1 million.
The unreported income stemmed from Wilcox’s transactions involving the “CryptoPunks,” a collection of 10,000 digital art characters. He acquired and sold 97 pieces, known as “Punks,” from this collection. These non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, include digital proof of ownership on a blockchain. In 2021, Wilcox sold around 62 Punks for a total of about $7.4 million, followed by another 35 Punks in 2022, generating approximately $4.9 million.
His tax returns for both years falsely denied any financial interest in virtual currency or digital assets. Taxpayers selling NFTs are required to report the transactions, including proceeds and any gains or losses.
“IRS Criminal Investigation is committed to unraveling complex financial schemes involving virtual currencies and non-fungible token (NFT) transactions designed to conceal taxable income,” said Philadelphia Field Office Special Agent in Charge Yury Kruty. “In today’s economic environment, it’s more important than ever that the American people feel confident that everyone is playing by the rules and paying the taxes they owe.”
The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation unit conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David C. Williams is prosecuting the case. The offenses carry a maximum penalty of up to six years of imprisonment, a supervised release term, and a fine. Sentencing will follow the applicable federal sentencing statutes and guidelines.
