Panic has gripped middle and top levels of the Trump administration and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) over the threat of McAfee founder and cybersecurity expert John McAfee to release tonnes of sensitive data. Bitcoin evangelist McAfee, who recently unveiled the Magic cryptocurrency trading platform and debit card, has run into trouble with the US administration, intelligence agencies and Bahamas police department over income tax disputes.
"I've collected files on corruption in governments. For the first time, I'm naming names and specifics," McAfee warned in a string of tweets from Sunday, media reports say. Threatening to release over 31 terabytes of "incriminating data" to the public if arrested or otherwise "disappeared," he posted the names of a "corrupt CIA agent and two Bahamian officials" along with claims they had taken bribes and been involved with drug trafficking.
The gambit apparently to show he was not bluffing seemed to have hit home with many officials on the take feeling the heat. He also promised to release the names of "25 Congressmen and 5 Senators, from both Parties, who are coming up for re-election in 2020, and who MUST be recalled, and if that fails, booted out of the office on election day" on Friday.
Bahamas Assist. Police Commissioner - Paul Rolle co-operates wirh Rogue CIA agent - Patrick Costello, to collect me. Rolle now wants proof of bad deeds. I will publish his deposits and withdrawals from Fidelity Bank, acct # 871040052816. OK Mr. Rolle? Should have Googled me. pic.twitter.com/NlaAX0fm9r
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 11, 2019
"I am not implying that our entire Government is corrupt. I am saying that it is corrupt to the point that no-one is untouched by it," he tweeted.
Claiming the Department of Justice was cooking up murder, racketeering and money-laundering charges against him in the hope of extraditing him from the Bahamas and locking him up for tax evasion, McAfee pointed out that the last attempt at framing him – when authorities in Belize raided his home and charged him with running a drug operation – failed, a report in cryptocurrency website ccn.com said. "The US Government has never faced a foe like me before," McAfee said, promising to "suffer this onslaught no longer."
A plea to every American: pic.twitter.com/re6Bwls6pD
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 13, 2019
The programmer, who made millions off his McAfee anti-virus software and later made millions more off Bitcoin, admitted in January that he had not paid income tax in eight years, and gave including "I'm done making money" and the always popular "Taxation is illegal."
McAfee announced in January he was running for president "in exile" on a platform promoting the use of cryptocurrencies. Currently living aboard a yacht in the Caribbean he has called the "freedom boat," he claimed he would use "masked doppelgängers" to campaign in the US.
