Antivirus software pioneer McAfee charged by U.S. with cryptocurrency fraud

[rooster59]

Antivirus software pioneer McAfee charged by U.S. with cryptocurrency fraud

By Jonathan Stempel and Chris Prentice

 

FILE PHOTO: John McAfee, co-founder of McAfee Crypto Team and CEO of Luxcore and founder of McAfee Antivirus, speaks during an interview in Havana, Cuba, July 4, 2019. Picture taken July 4, 2019. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

 

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John McAfee, the antivirus software pioneer whose former company still bears his name, has been indicted on fraud and money-laundering conspiracy charges stemming from two cryptocurrency schemes, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

 

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

 

The Justice Department said McAfee and his accomplices reaped more than $13 million from the schemes. The charges were brought in Manhattan federal court.

 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed related civil charges concerning the alleged pump-and-dump scheme.

 

Manhattan U.S. 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 could not immediately be identified. McAfee is being detained in Spain following his arrest there on tax evasion charges announced in October, the Justice Department said.

 

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

 

Watson's attorney 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 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which in October accused McAfee of concealing more than $23.1 million he made from boosting seven cryptocurrency offerings on Twitter.

 

In the cryptocurrency cases, authorities said McAfee touted assets including Verge, Reddcoin and Dogecoin as part of a "Coin of the Day" or "Coin of the Week" tweet from around December 2017 through February 2018.

 

Authorities said McAfee held himself up 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."

 

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Chris Prentice in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Will Dunham)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-06

 

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[madmen]

This is guy is wanted everywhere including for murder. 

[safarimike11]

1 hour ago, madmen said:

This is guy is wanted everywhere including for murder. 

I have no time whatsoever for this crook; he said he would eat his tool if Bitcoin hadn't reached $1 mn by the end of 2020 and then reneged on it.

[ctxa]

Well he sure as f***k is a fraud. And a low life scumbag, too. 

 

[GrandPapillon]

6 hours ago, madmen said:

This is guy is wanted everywhere including for murder. 

he is a creepy degenerate, this is what happens when mediocre individuals make a fortune out of thin air

 

oh, and his AV software was <deleted> ????

[GrandPapillon]

5 hours ago, safarimike11 said:

I have no time whatsoever for this crook; he said he would eat his tool if Bitcoin hadn't reached $1 mn by the end of 2020 and then reneged on it.

TBH, you could excuse him for this, he was probably snoring coke when he said that ????

 

Did you see his new black gf? jesus, the guy totally lost it ????

[ctxa]

lmao, just read that he is being held in Spain pending extradition to the US. After running through half the world from US justice, he got nabbed by the Guardia Civil. Makes me proud as a Spaniard that they put an end to this degenerate scumbag's freedom ????

 

(PS: Hopefully they will send him back to the US. I don't think fellow Spanish taxpayer citizens deserve to pay for this dude's meals at jail with their hard earn money which they pay in taxes)

[bendejo]

6 hours ago, safarimike11 said:

I have no time whatsoever for this crook; he said he would eat his tool if Bitcoin hadn't reached $1 mn by the end of 2020 and then reneged on it.

 

Check out the documentary about him from a few years ago.  Apparently he takes delight in eating even worse things.

 

[Stocky]

14 hours ago, rooster59 said:

antivirus software pioneer

His software is a virus

[BritManToo]

Poor guy, the USA has been after him a long time, surprised he escaped them for this long.

As far as I know he hasn't been in the US for a long time, how do they have jurisdiction?

Edited March 7, 2021 by BritManToo

[Heng]

He definitely went off the deep end, but I think a LOT of bitcoiners have him to thank.   A lot of folks (me included) kind of bought into his $1,,/btc by 2020 prediction back in 2017.  I don't remember the dates, but do have it scribbled down that BTC was in the $7,000 range at that time.   At that point, he didn't really seem that crazy yet, and hadn't gone on that private yacht 'on the run from justice' cruise....

 

After awhile, it didn't really matter that the prediction was going to be way off, just the actual gains became more and more clear that they were going to beat traditional instruments to heck on a year to year basis (at least in the immediate term).

[camble]

He’s been crazy for quite awhile 

 

 

 

[kekalot]

simple story of it is he used twitter to say "hey, the coin of the day is (insert coin) and then people would buy this coin like vultures, making it go 100-200% higher in minutes while he was buying them for weeks before (and his friends I am sure)

 

so they would be the one selling that coin at 200% to them, they would get rich and then it would crash quickly back to almost normal and then people would lose money.

 

I saw those 4 years ago and I reckon it was daily. i don't follow twitter so who knows how many times he did that.

the only thing I know is that 12 millions is peanuts compared to what he REALLY made. he could have made that easily in a single week from it.

Edited March 7, 2021 by kekalot

[sanuk711]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

As far as I know he hasn't been in the US for a long time, how do they have jurisdiction?

I don't think it has been that long BritmanToo...he wanted to run for President in the 2016 election, but the Libertarian party didn't elect him their candidate. He has been on line saying he will run again in the last election and asking for money.

 

He reportedly sold the Antivirus program for $7.7 billion ----just how much money do you need in one lifetime............

[BritManToo]

Just now, sanuk711 said:

I don't think it has been that long BritmanToo...he wanted to run for President in the 2016 election, but the Libertarian party didn't elect him their candidate. He has been on line saying he will run again in the last election and asking for money.

 

He reportedly sold the Antivirus program for $7.7 billion ----just how much money do you need in one lifetime............

If I were American, I'd vote for him.

[camble]

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

If I were American, I'd vote for him.

He’s not eligible to serve as president, he was born in England, and I think he got 100 million for the sale of McAfee antivirus software (if you can figure out how to uninstall it ????)

[sanuk711]

Was the Vice president

11 minutes ago, camble said:

He’s not eligible to serve as president, he was born in England, and I think he got 100 million for the sale of McAfee antivirus software (if you can figure out how to uninstall it

Its just as well --BritmanToo didn't cast a vote then.......

 

McAfee is also a political activist. He unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for President of the United States in 2016 and 2020. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee

 

How much did McAfee sell McAfee for?

A little more than a decade ago, Intel INTC, +4.15% announced it was buying McAfee for $7.7 billion in a deal that closed the following year. About five years later, Intel sold a majority stake in McAfee to private-equity firm TPG for $4.2 billion.Oct 19, 2563 BE... peopleaskGoogle

[nobodysfriend]

12 hours ago, GrandPapillon said:

TBH, you could excuse him for this, he was probably snoring coke when he said that ????

 

Did you see his new black gf? jesus, the guy totally lost it ????

Well , may be ... but at least he is creative ...

Btw , he is not wanted for the murder of his neighbor in Belize anymore ...

 

[GrandPapillon]

he has crazy eyes, no wonder he is falling for bitcoins ????

[Iron Tongue]

McAfee didn't do anything Elon Musk hasn't done in securities manipluation.  Elon has just done it on a larger scale.