Cryptocurrency maverick and US presidential candidate John McAfee took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to announce that he is fleeing America’s shores. According to McAfee, tax authorities in the US are pursuing him, his wife and four of his colleagues for what are, the former anti-virus software entrepreneur says, unspecified charges.
“Today, January 22nd, the [Internal Revenue Service (IRS)] has convened a grand jury in the state of Tennessee to charge myself, my wife Mrs McAfee and four of my campaign workers with unspecified IRS crimes of a felonious nature,” said McAfee in a video posted on his Twitter account. “Now, they want to silence me. I won’t allow them to. I am running.”
Discover iFX EXPO, Your Gateway to Asian Markets!
In the same video, McAfee said that he hadn’t paid taxes for almost a decade. Unlike most people, McAfee’s failure to pay the US tax authorities was not the result of stupidity or forgetfulness. The former CEO, who has long been an advocate of libertarian principles, has simply refused to pay.
“I have not paid taxes for eight years,” said McAfee. “I’ve made no secret of it. I have not filed returns. Every year I tell the IRS, ‘I am not filing returns, I have no intention of filing returns – come and find me.’”
John McAfee heading to Venezuela?
Following this, McAfee posted several other videos discussing the IRS’ pursuit of him – all of them aboard a swish-looking boat. In one video, he implied that he had dropped anchor in a “third world country.” In true McAfee fashion, the cryptocurrency pioneer also said that he had brought 20 firearms with him on his boat. McAfee claimed that the government of the unnamed third world country had taken 17 of them, which will be returned when he leaves the country and allowed him to keep three.
There is a chance that the unnamed country is Venezuela. Prior to uploading the video announcing his decision to leave America, McAfee posted a tweet saying that his boat would be arriving in the South American country “in [four] hours.”
If he does arrive in Venezuela, he is likely to be met by a number of other cryptocurrency fans. Years of mismanagement and rampant corruption have left Venezuela’s economy in shambles and destroyed the value of the Bolivar. Thus, citizens of the country have taken to using cryptocurrency; Dash has been the most successful, to make payments for goods and services.
bestadmin
