McAfee founder, John McAfee caught for cryptocurrency fraud

John McAfee, founder of McAfee, a leader in cybersecurity company and his executive advisor Jimmy Gale Watson Jr has been charged by the U.S. federal prosecutors for cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering.

In total, McAfee, Watson, and other members of the McAfee Team were able to collect over $13 million from two cryptocurrency pump-and-dump schemes, as the court order. Sources said, they have been using the twitter account for doing the cryptocurrency fraud.

A expert says, social media is the breeding ground for the data collection, dissemination, organising crime and many more. Sources said, during December 2017 and January 2018, they have garned more than $2 million in illicit profits via altcoin scalping, a fraudulent practice known as a 'pump and dump' scheme.

From December 2017 through 2018, they earned roughly $11 million by running a parallel scheme being paid to promote the initial coin offerings (ICOs) of multiple startups while concealing the payments they receive from ICO investors.

“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," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said.

"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."

McAfee currently detained in Spain.They were charged in a seven-count indictment, with each count carrying maximum potential sentences of between five and 20 years in prison. He was arrested and is currently being detained in Spain on separate tax evasion charges filed by the US Justice Department's Tax Division last year.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also filed civil charges against McAfee in a separate enforcement action. He was indicted for being paid over $23 million in digital assets while pretending to be impartial and independent of the ICOs he was promoting.