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Frank Butselaar is Tijs Michiel Verwest's lawyer who was arrested for tax fraud. Tijs Michiel Verwest is more popularly known as DJ Tiësto. He is a Dutch DJ and record producer who has garnered international fame through songs such as Adagio For Strings and Feel It In My Bones. Tiësto has also received titles such as "The Greatest DJ of All Time", "Best DJ of the Last 20 Years", and the "Godfather of EDM".
The legal drama between Tiësto and his ex-lawyer, Butselaar, began on February 20, 2025. Frank Butselaar was sent to prison last month on the charge of tax fraud. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) found out that he had been sending millions of dollars to "illegal offshore accounts" on behalf of his clients.
Frank Butselaar was sentenced to 30 months in prison for illegal handling of money. He will appear in court this coming week for the remaining $28 million that was hidden from the IRS. The remaining amount was supposed to be paid to the IRS in six years.
Why did Frank Butselaar say Tiësto owes $28 million to the IRS?
After the IRS convicted Butselaar to 30 months of prison time for concealing $28 million, he and his lawyers argued that Tiësto should be the one paying the rest of the money instead of him.
Butselaar argues that he laundered the money abroad at the request of Verwest (Tiësto). However, prosecutors believe that Verwest is oblivious that the accounts used were not legal. In addition to that, court documents have backed up the Dutch DJ claiming that he has paid up to $9 million to the IRS in tax.
Even after Tiësto's payment, Butselaar still owes the IRS $19 million and will appear in court on March 13, 2025. However, in a previous court meeting held on March 3, prosecutors tried to compromise and lower the amount to $15 million if Tiësto's ex-lawyer agreed to pay without any appeals. Butselaar and his legal team disagree with this and are pressing the DJ to pay the rest of the amount instead.
The justification that Butselaar's representative provided to Business Insider states:
"Mr. Butselaar was paid an hourly rate to help his clients. If anyone is held liable to pay taxes on the millions of dollars in income it should be the artists who earned it, not Mr. Butselaar."
This is not the first time Frank Butselaar has laundered money for his clients. He admitted to doing the same for another famous client of his, Nick Leonardus van de Wall, also known as Afrojack. He hid up to $70 million in illegal accounts abroad, which he admitted to last year in November.
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