news John McAfee has been arrested over cryptocurrency scam

[kyoukage01 3181]

Spoiler

Anti-virus software creator John McAfee charged with fraud in cryptocurrency scam

Philip Whiteside

 

Anti-virus software creator John McAfee has been charged in the US with conspiracy to commit fraud and money-laundering. The charges relate to two cryptocurrency schemes, the US Justice Department said on Friday.

 

Authorities said McAfee and his bodyguard, Jimmy Gale Watson Jr, exploited McAfee's large Twitter following to artificially inflate prices of "altcoins" through a so-called pump-and-dump scheme, and concealed payments McAfee received from start-up businesses to promote initial coin offerings.

 

McAfee, who designed software of the same name, was reportedly arrested in Barcelona in October 2020 while boarding a flight to Istanbul using a British passport.

The Justice Department, which brought the charges in a Manhattan federal court, said McAfee and his accomplices reaped more than $13m (£9.4m at current prices) from the schemes.

 

Related civil charges were filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission concerning the alleged pump-and-dump scheme.

 

Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement: "As alleged, McAfee and Watson exploited a widely used social media platform and enthusiasm among investors in the emerging cryptocurrency market to make millions through lies and deception." Lawyers for McAfee have not, at this stage, been identified for comment. McAfee is still being held in Spain following his arrest there on tax evasion charges, the Justice Department said.

 

Watson was detained on Thursday night in Texas, the department added.

 

Watson's lawyer Arnold Spencer said in a statement: "Jimmy Watson is a decorated veteran and former Navy Seal. He fought for other people's rights and liberties, and he is entitled to and looks forward to his day in court to exercise some of those very rights."

 

Both also face civil charges by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which in October accused McAfee of concealing more than $23.1m (£16.7m at current prices) he made from boosting seven cryptocurrency offerings on Twitter.

 

McAfee, 75, is a famous libertarian who believes that tax is wrong and has in the past boasted of not paying his taxes. He launched a presidential campaign in the US in 2018, but failed to gain any traction as an independent candidate or as one for the Libertarian Party.

 

In the cryptocurrency cases, authorities said McAfee promoted assets like Verge, Reddcoin and Dogecoin as "Coin of the Day" or "Coin of the Week" at points between around December 2017 and February 2018. Authorities said McAfee presented himself as an expert on cybersecurity and cryptocurrency through his tweets, speeches and his role as a CEO of a publicly traded cryptocurrency company. They also accused him of telling followers he had no stake in the coins, even as he touted how they "will change the world".

source: https://news.sky.com/story/anti-virus-software-creator-john-mcafee-charged-with-fraud-in-cryptocurrency-scam-12237417

 

John McAfee has always been active on social media like Twitter posting comments on cryptocurrencies. And now it seems like the authorities finally got to him.

 

He and his bodyguard has been arrested on charges related to cryptocurrencies. Apparently McAfee and his associates have for years been "influencing" crypto prices to swing their way and reap profits while doing so. Add to that the millions of untaxed $$$ that has been made and secretly kept from such a racket.

 

Details on the news can be found in the spoiler above and in the link provided.

 

If the accusations are true, then we've been played for fools all along. Imagine, if for example McAfee denounces a coin, his many followers will pick up on the news and its price will go down, creating a panic situation. That is where he (or his associates) will step in and buy out those underpriced coins. Or he invested in a coin whose price is going down the drain; to prevent that, he praise the coin on social media to make the coin rise due to the hype. And many crypto users have fallen for his trap.

 

How do you feel about this news? And what is your opinion?

 

[Whited35 15285]

14 hours ago, kyoukage01 said:

How do you feel about this news? And what is your opinion?

Oh I read this news yesterday and start to neglect his antivirus software too, suspecting like secret scripts can be there to mine the currency by using my computer's resources 😁. I just laughed while reading this news because this man is always appearing to be controversial due to his activities. If you have not forgotten, the project Youengine has also managed to create a huge crypto community just by using his face and I am still monitoring the progress of project as I participated in their bounty😜😝. 

[Syedbesharat 5423]

This is a very unexpected news where the mac free was face of many projects and make quite good hype with claim of he knows who is Satoshi the BTC creator. If the charges are proven right then the price of many coins are gonna be perish from market .This is one of one reason why people don't belive in crypto the manipulation element is changing fates of many of people who believe in them invested because of their statements. The time will tell us how much they are wrong doer.

[kryptonick 2659]

Today McAfee instead of defending himself was boasting about his results with pumping Doge, telling that he managed to pump it by 1000% and compared himself with the Musk tweets! I don't know if this will be any good representation at the court hearing, and of course I don't like what Musk is doing as it is the same, just not too organized and speculative as McAfee. John McAfee was clearly doing pump and dumps, and had a price put on his tweets. This was probably what was illegal and created a case for him. He also seems to had a team arranging everything, like taking offers, bargaining and proceeding with the coin recommendations

[Samer1997 715]

I do not think that this is a trap, in fact we have to follow big people like him, in the end all we want for us is to make profits from trading, and it cannot be denied that this person's support for any currency will increase its price within moments and thus you will achieve guaranteed profits

[kyoukage01 3181]

14 hours ago, Samer1997 said:

I do not think that this is a trap, in fact we have to follow big people like him, in the end all we want for us is to make profits from trading, and it cannot be denied that this person's support for any currency will increase its price within moments and thus you will achieve guaranteed profits

True. Maybe this is what they've been counting on all along.

 

But really, do we crypto users have to listen to everything a few celebrities have to say?

https://cryptotalk.org/topic/344792-can-celebrities-and-social-media-really-influence-cryptocurrency-prices-why-how-so/

 

Crypto traders can 'ride the hype' so they can gain something out of it, and that's it. Other than that, any opinion, whether from a celebrity or from you and me, should be taken to full consideration first before agreeing/disagreeing.

 

15 hours ago, kryptonick said:

Today McAfee instead of defending himself was boasting about his results with pumping Doge, telling that he managed to pump it by 1000% and compared himself with the Musk tweets! I don't know if this will be any good representation at the court hearing, and of course I don't like what Musk is doing as it is the same, just not too organized and speculative as McAfee. John McAfee was clearly doing pump and dumps, and had a price put on his tweets. This was probably what was illegal and created a case for him. He also seems to had a team arranging everything, like taking offers, bargaining and proceeding with the coin recommendations

Is it this one?

Spoiler

 

I don't think the tweet itself will do him in. If it does, then Elon Musk is next, then every other celebrity who have positive comments on cryptocurrencies.

 

McAfee has been evading taxes for years and he's even reportedly boasting about it. Then the pump and dump scheme accusations. Anyone could have done those pump and dumps too but the report indicated that McAfee haven't paid any taxes from those he received. I think this will be the main points of the latest accusations against him.

 

We'll see how this event will develop over the course of a few days and weeks. At least McAfee is still giving updates on himself at Twitter.

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by kyoukage01

[kryptonick 2659]

7 hours ago, kyoukage01 said:

I don't think the tweet itself will do him in. If it does, then Elon Musk is next, then every other celebrity who have positive comments on cryptocurrencies.

Yes, this is the tweet! He misrepresented though, because Doge did crash as the rest cryptocurrencies during the bear market and the price went down a lot. Doge does pump and dumps since it was created.

 

7 hours ago, kyoukage01 said:

but the report indicated that McAfee haven't paid any taxes from those he received. I think this will be the main points of the latest accusations against him.

Pump and dumps are illegal, and tax evasion which is also illegal is another charge. He will have to face both charges.

[kyoukage01 3181]

On 3/9/2021 at 9:03 PM, kryptonick said:

Pump and dumps are illegal, and tax evasion which is also illegal is another charge. He will have to face both charges.

He will no longer have to face those charges, because he is no longer of this mortal plane. Apparently he already hanged himself.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/john-mcafee-found-dead-prison-after-spanish-court-allows-extradition-2021-06-23/

 

R.I.P. John McAfee.

 

Because this case can now be considered closed, I request that moderators @ayatoslaw @epidemia should lock this topic. For messages of condolences, members should post here instead.

https://cryptotalk.org/topic/356032-rip-john-mcafee-a-famous-crypto-advisor/

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by kyoukage01