CFTC dismisses complaint against John David McAfee
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has dropped its lawsuit against John David McAfee. This becomes clear from documents filed by the regulator in the New York Southern District Court on July 13, 2022.
The CFTC says that the dismissal is due to McAfee’s death. The regulator was unable to confirm his death for several months.
The CFTC complaint alleges that, from at least in or around December 2017 through at least in or around February 2018, John David McAfee, Jimmy Gale Watson Jr., and others engaged in a digital asset “pump and dump” manipulative and deceptive scheme in which they fraudulently recommended to the public to purchase digital assets such as verge, reddcoin, and dogecoin.
This manipulative and deceptive scheme caused harm to market participants who paid inflated prices for the digital assets, the CFTC says.
The complaint alleges that the defendants obtained gains from the manipulative and deceptive scheme involving short-term trading of digital assets such as bitcoin and other digital assets for a profit of in excess of $2 million at then-prevailing bitcoin valuations, to the detriment of individuals who purchased the digital assets at inflated prices, including individuals in the United States.
The CFTC accused the defendants of engaging in fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, and Commission Regulations.