- John McAfee has been arrested in Spain on multiple charges including tax evasion and fraud
- U.S. authorities issued a warrant for his arrest yesterday following the unseasling of DoJ and SEC filings
- McAfee is said to have earned many millions of dollars for promoting crypto projects in 2017-18 but didn’t declare them
John McAfee, the man who has boasted for years about his ability to evade authorities, has been arrested in Spain. The tech pioneer is set to be extradited to the U.S. to face multiple charges from the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ranging from tax evasion to fraud, in relation to his massive cryptocurrency earnings in recent years.
You’ve Been Capwned
McAfee has been a fugitive of the United States since January 2019, when he fled following the convening of a Grand Jury to indict him and members of his 2020 Presidential campaign workers on tax-related charges. He has lived in various locations since that time, allegedly earning millions of dollars in cryptocurrency payments for promoting tokens, most notably in the 2017 bull run when he started ‘McAfee’s Coin of the Week’.
The DoJ and SEC charges against him were unsealed yesterday, having been made earlier this year. The DoJ charges, which were filed in June, accuse him of “tax evasion and willful failure to file tax returns”, claiming that he “earned millions in income from promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements, and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary.”
They allege that McAfee failed to file any tax returns between 2014 and 2018 and that he “attempted to evade the IRS by concealing assets, including real property, a vehicle, and a yacht, in the names of others.”
The SEC filings, made in May, focus on McAfee’s cryptocurrency dealings. They note that McAfee allegedly received more than $11.6 million worth of cryptocurrencies in return for his ICO promotion in 2017-18, in addition to another $11.5 million in tokens of those promoted projects which he would have sold when the project hit an exchange.
Will The Real John McAfee Please Stand Trial?
McAfee has previously faked an arrest and claimed that his body doubles have been arrested in his place, so until he touches down in the U.S. and it can be proved it is actually him, there is still a chance that the renegade Ghostbymcafee creator is still out there.
The real John McAfee faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on each count of tax evasion and one year in prison on each count of willful failure to file a tax return if he is found guilty, alongside a hefty fine from the SEC.
