John McAfee is arrested in Spain on U.S. tax-evasion charges

On October 3, 2020, John McAfee is arrested in Spain on U.S. tax-evasion charges.

The arrest marked a dramatic turn for someone who had cultivated an outlaw image and frequently taunted U.S. authorities from self-imposed exile. McAfee had become a polarizing figure in the cryptocurrency community—some viewed him as an entertaining personality and early Bitcoin adopter who used his platform to promote cryptocurrency adoption, while others saw him as a grifter who promoted dubious projects and engaged in likely pump-and-dump schemes where he was paid to shill cryptocurrencies that he would then dump on his followers.

McAfee had claimed to charge $105,000 per promotional tweet for cryptocurrency projects, raising questions about whether his enthusiastic endorsements reflected genuine belief or paid promotion. The tax evasion charges related not specifically to cryptocurrency but to McAfee's broader failure to report income and pay taxes.