That's not the transaction for which you would be taxed. But if you're paying your workers something that you claim is worth $50, for which you spent $950, that

That's not the transaction for which you would be taxed. But if you're paying your workers something that you claim is worth $50, for which you spent $950, that $900 difference is money that would be an expense if you paid them normally. Instead, it's profit, and you owe $300 in taxes on it -- even though you have the negative cash flow from your $950 coin. That's what's missing from the story. Either we're reading it wrong, or what he committed was a conventional tax fraud with a gold-bug spin.