What happend with John McAfee

A few days ago, John McAfee’s lifeless body was found hanging from the rafters of his prison cell. This prompted considerable speculation online, similar to Epstein, that he was killed.

Eric Weinstein yesterday was also pushing the Epstein-McAfee conspiracy theory. Given Eric’s dubious credibility, such as hyping a ‘theory of everything’ which for almost a decade he has touted but never published, I decided to investigate it further, suspecting that there was material information that was being ignored, because it did not fit into the narrative of McAfee being an innocent victim.

Initially the circumstances of McAfee’s death seemed suspicious. He was arrested in Spain while trying to board a plane to Istanbul, in October 2020, for tax evasion. Tax evasion, despite the outward severity of it, has among the most lenient punishments of all white collar crimes. Most defendants serve only a few years, or even none if they cooperate, so it didn’t make sense that he would kill himself over that. Provided McAfee paid what was owed, which would presumably only be a fraction of his total crypto wealth, he would likely be a free man.

After languishing in a Spanish prison for the six months to await his fate, he was informed that he would be extradited to the US, and then shorty thereafter killed himself.

The reality is, McAfee was a sociopath who brought his eventual self-destruction upon himself. His public persona of being a paranoid but wise old man who thankfully dispensed wisdom to his followers, was an act. Just a simple Google search would have showed that in March 2021 McAfee and his business partner Jimmy Gale Watson Jr, 40, were indicted in the Southern District of New York for a massive fraud:

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “As alleged, McAfee and Watson exploited a widely used social media platform and enthusiasm among investors in the emerging cryptocurrency market to make millions through lies and deception. 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.”

This new development was independent of tax evasion charges, and fraud and money laundering are punished far more severely. His friend was already arrested, which despite his association with McAfee was largely ignored by the media.

MCAFEE, 75, and WATSON, 40, are United States citizens. Both of them are charged in a seven-count Indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit commodities and securities fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison; one count of conspiracy to commit securities and touting fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison; two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of substantive wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum potential sentence of ten years in prison. In addition to potential prison sentences, each of these charges also carries potential financial penalties. The maximum potential prison sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentences to be imposed on the defendants will be determined by the judge.

Despite being ordained by the media and his followers as a ‘security expert’ and professing insider knowledge of the US government, he unwittingly aided agents in his capture. Being an American citizen and buying an international plane ticket to a country with an extradition treaty meant that his information and location would be picked up on a government database, making his arrest as easy as…picking up someone at the airport. Given the seriousness of the charges and what happened to his friend, McAfee knew he was up shit creek if extradited. This is more than enough time to be a life sentence for a 75-year-old. So when unable to run away from his problems anymore, he took the only way out.

He was also ratted on by his associates:

McAfee Team Member-1, McAfee Team Member-2 and McAfee Team Member-3 have been providing the Government with information in the hope of obtaining leniency for their respective roles in the scalping and touting schemes described herein or in laundering proceeds of those schemes. Information provided by all three of these witnesses has proven reliable and has been corroborated by other independent evidence.

This was a major operation involving many people and millions of dollars of trading profits moved between several banks, not just McAfee making some tweets here and there.

In McAfee’s defense, investors lost money not because of fraud, but because crypto is such a bad investment. The fact Bitcoin fell 75% in 2018 would be a mitigating factor in a defense case, because it’s not like McAfee can be blamed for the entirety of the decline of the coins he hyped if Bitcoin was down 75% that year, and given the high correlation between Bitcoin and other crypto assets. And, we’re seeing a replay of this as Bitcoin falls 50% from its highs from $65,000 in April to $32,000 now, and other coins have fallen 70-90% or more. No amount of regulation and arrests will prevent people who buy crypto from losing money. Just as Nader said that the Chevy Covair is unsafe at any speed, crypto is unsafe at any price. It’s obvious that some people are too stupid to have money, and so will always find ways to lose it.