Anti-Virus Mogul John McAfee Charged with Using Twitter for Cryptocurrency Securities Fraud

It is a measure of how rapidly the world is changing that the headline for this article would have been gibberish in the year 2000. John McAfee, founder of pioneering anti-virus business McAfee Associates, has been indicted in the US of pump-and-dump securities fraud. McAfee is charged with using his profile on Twitter to promote niche cryptocurrencies to boost the value of investments held in the name of his associates so they could be sold for a quick profit. When challenged on Twitter, McAfee repeatedly denied having any stake in the cryptocurrencies featured in his ‘coin of the week’ tweets. McAfee is also accused of receiving fees to promote initial coin offerings (ICOs) whilst publicly denying that he accepted such incentive payments.

The scale of the alleged profits made by McAfee, his executive advisor Jimmy Watson and their cryptocurrency team was outlined in a statement by Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss.

The defendants allegedly used McAfee’s Twitter account to publish messages to hundreds of thousands of his Twitter followers touting various cryptocurrencies through false and misleading statements to conceal their true, self-interested motives. McAfee, Watson, and other members of McAfee’s cryptocurrency team allegedly raked in more than $13 million from investors they victimized with their fraudulent schemes. Investors should be wary of social media endorsements of investment opportunities.

The pump-and-dump schemes were in effect for a few months at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.

From in or about December 2017 through in or about January 2018, McAfee, Watson, and other McAfee Team members collectively earned more than $2 million in illicit profits from their altcoin scalping activities while the long-term value of the recommended altcoins purchased by investors declined substantially as of a year after the promotional tweets.

The fees generated from ICO promotions were even more lucrative than their scalping schemes.

From approximately on or about December 20, 2017 through on or about February 10, 2018, McAfee, Watson, and other McAfee Team members collectively earned more than $11 million in undisclosed compensation that they took steps to affirmatively hide from ICO investors. In each instance, McAfee and Watson failed to disclose to ICO investors that the ICO Issuers were paying the McAfee Team a substantial portion of the funds raised from ICO investors for their touting efforts, despite knowing that they were required to disclose such compensation under federal securities laws.

McAfee may have tried to distance himself from his cryptocurrency promotional schemes soon after they began. On 27th December 2017 McAfee claimed his Twitter account had been hacked after his phone had been compromised.

Other security experts mocked McAfee at the time his Twitter account was hacked, suggesting they found McAfee’s behavior to be suspicious.

McAfee has already been detained in Spain since October 2020 after he was charged with tax evasion.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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