SEC Sues John McAfee Over Promoting Cryptocurrency On Twitter

Aighearach shares a report from Reuters: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday sued John McAfee, creator of the eponymous anti-virus software, alleging that he made over $23.1 million in undisclosed compensation from recommending seven cryptocurrency offerings on Twitter that were materially false and misleading. The regulator, which is seeking a trial by jury, alleged that from at least November 2017 through February 2018, McAfee recommended cryptocurrencies that he was paid to promote, while falsely denying "he was being paid by the issuers." The SEC is seeking to impose on McAfee a civil penalty as well as disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, with interest. The agency also wants to ban him permanently from serving as an officer or director of any listed company or any company that files reports to the agency. "Poor John, surely he's misunderstood," writes Slashdot reader Aighearach. "John, come talk to us, do another Slashdot interview and tell your side! We're here for you, and we have people who can do your taxes while you..."

Slashdot reader Aighearach adds that McAfee is also facing charges for evading taxes and willfully failing to file tax returns. "John McAfee might not be able to give an interview about his SEC troubles after all, now that he's on his way to the Big House," writes Aighearach.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent news. Fuck shit cunt bastard fuck.

Viva AC!

Re: the intere has been ruined.

[AcidFnTonic]

Anytime I use trailing periods it blocks me. The sentence proceeding this was meant to end with 3 periods not one, but is apparently ascii art now.

Re:

[Rockoon]

I fail to understand why help would be needed in blocking ascii art.

First of all, come on, the detecting part shouldnt be all that hard, and the main issue is that the site presents an all-or-nothing situation to the reader, where the moment the reader clicks to view a hidden post it becomes the biggest possible mistake they could make.

Slashdot already has a feature for abbreviating long unhidden posts, but clicking to view a specific hidden post skips this abbreviation step. Thats the big failure of th

Well, aren't the *issuers* the miners?

[lessSockMorePuppet]

maybe his statement was technically true, the best kind of true?

Re:Well, aren't the *issuers* the miners?

[awwshit]

Not about the issuers. Its about pump-and-dump.

1. Obtain stake in new crypto-beanie-babies.
2. Use your infamy to dupe others into buying crypto-beanie-babies.
3. Sell, Sell, Sell.

Bitcoin is genuine and useful - ICOs/ETH = scams

[sleepghost]

Bitcoin is the most important invention of the 21st century. The digitization of Gold is useful!

For instance in Africa: https://youtu.be/Idlf_LLyi1o [youtu.be]

Re:

[bloodhawk]

Bitcoin is the most important invention of the 21st century.

LOL

tax evasion

[Spazmania]

To be clear, he's charged with evading taxes. Failing to file carries no criminal penalty in and of itself. At worst you can be audited as a result. But failing to pay can be a felony and in this case likely was.

How seriously should John McAfee's views be taken?

[NotTheSame]

Let me refer you to his video instructing you how to uninstall McAfee Antivirus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Re:

[Splyncryth]

Apparently enough for the SEC to go after him. Then again, some law enforcement agences goes after low hanging fruit because they are most of the time lazy and need to justify their job.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Will they let him off

[Kryptonut]

if he makes good on his Bitcoin bet?

Flee John, flee!

[t4eXanadu]

Time to flee to Central America again, John. Probably stay away from Belize, though.

Re:Flee John, flee!

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

Too late. A news article in Reuters reported that he had been arrested already, in Spain. U.S. is seeking extradition.

Maybe he can make it to the Ecuadoran embassy?

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[jwymanm]

I hope he pays someone off or it's one of his body doubles. Fuck taxes.

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[Questy]

Now hold on a minute. That's how the nanny state gets their money to pay for $president's pet projects. Any of them. Without taxes, you get nothing. None of the green new deal, none of the free college, no free healthcare... on and on. I thought taxes were good on the rich?

Sue Kendall Jenner & her Fyre Festival

[thesjaakspoiler]

She convinced me it would be awesome but I have still nightmare about the cold sandwiches and sleeping on the floor without a matress.
Why did she get away with those lies?

Re:

[bloodhawk]

Sorry if you listen to anything her or the rest of that inbred clan say then you have only yourself to blame.

the Empire knows no limits

[mad7777]

I don't get it. John McAfee lives (as I understand) in Honduras. How does the US have jurisdiction there??

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

Countries like that are small enough that one of the three letter agencies can grab someone without repercussion. Because fuck it what can Honduras do besides write a complaint letter to the UN? Now Russia and China are different stories.

Re:

[mad7777]

It's actually worse than that. The US is the only country in the world that enforces its tax code on its valued citizens wherever they may roam, and for the rest of their lives (if you ignore Eritrea, which is easy to do).

So yeah. If you're a US person, you're basically a virtual prisoner of the US tax system. Hooray for the Land of the Free (to pay US taxes forever).

McCaffee was at a party in Venice Beach...

[leptons]

...a few years ago, where he was trying to get people to smoke a joint he brought with him. I know a few of those stoners declined. When even Venice Beach stoners won't smoke your stuff, you have a reputation problem.