The Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud saga started around October 2020, after a Late renowned tech expert, John McAfee was arrested. The late tech expert was arrested after a report was made to the Spanish authorities; who detained him immediately.
John McAfee Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Fraud Arrest
| Name | Price | 24H (%) |
|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin(BTC) | $89,716.00 | 1.49% |
 Ethereum(ETH) | $3,053.80 | -2.10% |
 Dogecoin(DOGE) | $0.364861 | -6.99% |
 Cardano(ADA) | $0.66 | 20.12% |
 Polygon(MATIC) | $0.362237 | -0.60% |
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The warrant of the arrest was an alleged promotion of 7 Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) in the United States. John was alleged to have promoted the coins of Twitter to create awareness, and stealthily bought a large portion of the cryptocurrencies. He was paid for the promotions and also has the intention to sell it off once the buying pressure and coin market price were high.
The charge was also coupled with tax evasion and a scalping scheme to fraud people into investing in the coins. John McAfee was thrown into Spanish prison where he was being tried for his crypto ‘pump and dump’ charge count. However, the news of John McAfee’s death inside a Spanish prison hit the internet in June 2021. The cause of his death was alleged to be suicide, which was disputed by his family.
SEC Ruling on John McAfee, and Mr. Jimmy G. Watson
Moreover, the promotion negotiations, scalping, and ‘pump and dump’ scheme could not be pulled off by John McAfee only. He had an accomplice named Jimmy G. Watson that helped out with the activities. J. Watson was said to have helped the late Tech CEO with the promotions deals with issuers and payments made by innocent crypto investors.
The money realized from the fraudulent act was approximately $ 24 million. After much evaluation, sittings, and trials, the Security Exchange Commission gave out its ruling on J. Watson for his role in the ICO fraud. The commission fined him a sum of $375,000.
The breakdown of the $375,000 includes; interest of $ 59,533 and a fine of $316,401. All for his act in negotiating with the Initial Coin Offering issuers on behalf of John and monetary gain. Watson was also prohibited from dealing, trading, selling, or transacting with cryptocurrencies or any digital currencies in large quantities.
Although he was allowed to purchase crypto and digital assets/properties for only his personal use and account. A Notice of Death was also issued for John McAfee, and his case was dismissed.
