The latest charges were filed in the Manhattan federal court in New York. The pair are accused of buying the cryptocurrency assets before promoting them on Twitter, where Mr McAfee has more than one million followers.
They would then sell the assets as soon as Mr McAfee’s endorsements saw prices rise, according to the US justice department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Might be nasty and all that but buying something, talking about it then selling just isn’t illegal.
It might even be against the rules of certain recognised exchanges and so on but that’s private, not general, law. However:
They allegedly made a further $11m (£8m) in payments from cryptocurrency start-ups for promoting their assets on Twitter, payments which were not disclosed to investors who bought them.
Now that however…..and this explains a lot:
McAfee was born in Cinderford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom….
All that weirdness now makes sense.
Sounds like they were doing the reverse of shorting, which is jolly clever if indulged in by hedge funds.
Cinderford is indeed a remarkable place. Thought of buying a house there. Went to see it. Thought better of the idea.
Umm, under FSMA2000, it counts as market manipulation. The previous SFA regime wasn’t that keen on the idea either.
Is there a specific statute on the books? Probably not. Is there something that will result in someone being torn a new arsehole? Quite probably.
Ummm… He did nothing that any fashion-fad/toy/”collectible” ( including “art”) /luxury brand seller, a host of “celebrities”, and their advertising agencies have not already done ad nauseam over decades…
If you stop treating crypto as “currency” ( which it really (still) isn’t…), and treat it as a fancy “collectible” the whole thing comes apart.. Or at least has so much Prior Art and practice, the whole case comes down to sour grapes by some stupid, gullible sods.
Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs. Those wierd algo-generated flowers. Peculiar.
I shall remain agnostic until Captain Potato delivers himself of an ex cathedra pronouncement which will make the whole thing clear. He will note this and suggest that just like a real professor.
Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that we seem to have passed peak candidly?
Cinderford, eh. I should have fucking known it.