The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI unsealed the indictment charging John McAfee and his associate Jimmy Watson with securities fraud. According to a press release published by the Department of Justice on March 5, John McAfee has been indicted for a number of charges tied to his cryptocurrency operations and his so-called “McAfee Team.”
McAfee and his associate have been charged with several frauds.
According to the indictment, McAfee and Watson have been charged with “conspiracy to commit commodities and securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities and touting fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and substantive wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy offenses stemming from two schemes relating to the fraudulent promotion to investors of cryptocurrencies qualifying under federal law as commodities or securities.” Last Friday, Janice McAfee (John’s wife) requested legal assistance from a lawyer from Tennessee. She tweeted, “one that can work with her husband’s Spanish lawyers and need to have a strong understanding of cryptocurrency.”
Prosecutors allege John McAfee leveraged his social media presence to engage in fraud.
Federal prosecutors say that John McAfee leveraged his social media presence to engage in “age-old pump-and-dump schemes.” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss discussed how McAfee’s Twitter account held a strong amount of evidence. “As alleged, McAfee and his associate Watson exploited a widely used social media platform and enthusiasm among investors in the emerging cryptocurrency market to make millions through lies and deception,” Strauss said. “The defendants allegedly used McAfee’s Twitter account to publish messages to a million of his Twitter followers touting various cryptocurrencies through false and misleading statements to conceal their true, self-interested motives,” she added.
