Court Tosses Coinbase User’s Bid to Block IRS Summons

A California federal court has dismissed a Coinbase user’s attempt to block an IRS summons seeking his financial records.

Roger Metz filed a petition in May 2025 in the Northern District of California to quash the summons tied to an audit of his 2022 tax return. He argued it violated his privacy and was overly broad-even after filing an amended return and paying additional taxes.

But U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ruled against him on March 18, citing failure to comply with federal civil procedure rules. Metz did not formally notify all required government parties-including the U.S. Attorney General in Washington-within the mandated 90-day window.

The judge dismissed the case purely on procedural grounds, not on the merits of Metz’s privacy claims.

This ruling bolsters the IRS’s ability to obtain user data from centralized crypto exchanges via John Doe summonses-a tactic also challenged unsuccessfully in 2025 by another Coinbase user, James Harper, who claimed Fourth Amendment violations.

The outcome underscores that procedural compliance remains critical-even for former government employees like Metz, who once worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the IRS.