WEBVTT - McAfee Part 5: The Descent 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:05.560 Francois Garcia is a Canadian filmmaker. He purchased the rights 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:09.240 to make a documentary based on John mccafee's life in 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:14.320 late twenty twelve, about two months after McAfee's neighbor in 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:18.520 Belize turned up dead, and over the next couple of 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.840 years he would try to line up meetings with people 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:26.319 in the film industry. Never stood involved. We're talking to 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.880 several high profile directors as well, So idol, John, I 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.520 want to set up a meeting. You guys can chat. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:42.200 Francois says that during this period, John mccafee was taking bathsols, 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.919 a very addictive synthetic drug known to cause euphoric highs 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:52.080 and hallucinations, which was making it hard to set up 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:57.920 meetings because McAfee said he didn't feel safe anywhere. He 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:02.920 had fears of the cartel everywhere he went. So, can 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.000 we do this in La? In La, it's too dangerous 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.200 for me, too many Mexican cortels. Okay, John, all right? 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:12.959 Can we do this in New York? No? I can't 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.759 do New York because I can't carry weapons in New York. Therefore, 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.679 I can't protect myself from the cartels like my god Man, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.080 just to help me out here. I'm not gonna ask 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:25.840 you every city in the United States. Just give me 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:31.360 a city. McAfee chooses Boston. He tells Francois that he's 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.800 Irish and he feels like he'd be safe there, surrounded 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.560 by other Irish people. So they're at the Hilton in 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.600 Boston waiting in the lobby for the potential director to 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:51.280 show up, and McAfee starts to get jittery, and he says, sorry, 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.320 I can't do this, I have to leave immediately. The 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:59.400 hotel is surrounded by cartels all over the lobby. Here 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:03.600 look at us. There was a Microsoft conference and the 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:08.520 hotel and I'm like, all I see is blue shirts 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.079 with the Microsoft loco in it. And it's like, well, 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:16.880 these are all cartel operatives. They are together and like 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.600 they're Microsoft employees and it's like, no, they work for 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:27.280 the cartel. They don't know it, but they do. McAfee 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.240 starts to spiral in front of Francois. He says he 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.160 wants a limo with tinted windows to take him to 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:39.240 the airport. Francois notices that the director has just walked 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:44.120 into the lobby. He wants to salvage the meeting, He 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.240 offers to drive McAfee to the airport in his own 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.919 car so that the director can sit in the back 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:55.119 with McAfee and discuss the movie. McAfee agrees. They head 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:59.080 up to his room to pack. Francois sees McAfee's partner 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.280 Jenesis there, then, I haven't seen any drugs yet, but 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.040 it's it's it's obvious. It's like a state of paranoia. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.079 There's guns everywhere, loaded guns. His fidgety guns falls out 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:16.200 of his pocket. Janus technologies they were guns, but denies 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:20.800 that either of them were high in any event. Francois, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:26.440 he's cameraman, McAfee, Janis, and the director all pile into 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.639 the car. So off we drive to the airport. All 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.359 of this is on video by away on a car 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.960 chase with invisible cars, and it's like, okay, they're behind us, 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:40.320 durned left and there's nobody behind us. They're there. Drive faster. 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.840 I can drive faster. And I mean he's holding a 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.760 gun and waving the gun. Can you just point your 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.360 gun down like, because I'm driving and I want to 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.160 hold it in the back of my head. Now, keep 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.160 in mind the director is in the car the whole time, 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:04.160 seeing everything. When they arrive at the airport, McAfee and 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.960 Janus leave their guns in Francois's black seat and they 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.839 check in for a flight to the UK. As Francois 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.880 is driving the director back, McAfee calls him with one 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.400 more favor to ask. McAfee says he who left his 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:24.200 own car at the hotel, and he wants Francois to 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.120 give the keys to one of his security guards, who 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:32.520 drive it to McAfee's house in Tennessee. Francois finds the 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.520 car in the parking garage as soon as they opened 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.640 the car. I mean I cev the arsenal, using the 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.200 word lightly, an arsenal of weapons, all sizes, all over 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:47.360 the vehicle, and the bags ziplock bags, probably too well, 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:53.960 and says each full of this substance inside those ziplock bags, 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.760 according to Francois, was a drug similar to bath salts, 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.400 but even stronger. Later, Francois goes out for dinner and 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.440 drinks with the film director. His reaction to the whole thing, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:12.520 according to Francois, was what the hell just happened? But 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:17.240 as it turns out, their meeting was a success. The 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:24.120 deal goes through. You're listening to Foundering, I'm your host, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:31.680 Jamie's harrabay. It's the beginning of the end. When John 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.960 McAfee ran for and lost the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.920 it propelled him to the national stage once again. He 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:48.120 was on TV regularly discussing politics, civil liberties, and cybersecurity. 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.640 He had largely shrugged off the accusations that he'd murdered 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.920 his neighbor in Belize, and he was able to use 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:01.480 his fame to court a new sort of wealth, cryptocurrency. 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:06.440 In this chapter of McAfee's life, he becomes a major 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.880 player in the crypto world. With a single tweet, he 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.080 could send the price of a new digital currency soaring. 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:20.719 He was living large again and evading taxes, but behind 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:28.080 the scenes, McAfee was deteriorating. His world was composed of guns, drugs, 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:34.200 delusions that ruled his life for years. McAfee had pushed 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.720 the notion that he was wanted by one government or another. 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:43.159 This time because of his dealings in crypto and those 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:48.360 unpaid taxes. Authorities in the United States really are after 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:54.279 him and they're closing in. We'll tell you more after 0:06:54.320 --> 0:07:05.400 the break. Stories of John McAfee doing synthetic drugs have 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.840 floated around for years. As early as twenty ten, John 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.280 McAfee was posting on a message board called blue Light 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:18.560 about his experiments with bath salts. The journalist Jeff Wis 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:23.640 quotes McAfee's writing, I think it's the finest drug ever conceived. 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:29.000 I had visual and auditory hallucinations and the worst paranoia 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:33.600 of my life. Over the years, McAfee posted dozens of 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:38.720 times on this site, which is now defunct. Another journalist, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:43.920 Joshua Davis, asked McAfee about these posts, and he insisted 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.280 it was just a big prank, but then McAfee went 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:52.240 on to describe elaborate hallucinations to the reporter. For what 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.160 it's worth, Janice McAfee describes him more as a drinker. 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:01.640 Whatever he was on, it made him super annoid. I 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.080 first spoke to Janus in June of twenty twenty two, 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:10.480 about a year after John McAfee's death. I specifically wanted 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.920 to ask her about McAfee's repeated insistence that the cartel 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.640 was out to get him. It's a story that Janus 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.600 has corroborated, mostly in tabloids. Like The Daily Mail and 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:27.320 The Sun, but also in outlets like Newsweek. In fact, 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.120 she said over the years that it was related to 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.480 her past as a sex worker. I didn't know that 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:38.000 my pimp had been approached by someone who was claiming 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:43.160 to be a representative of the cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel. 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.280 John McAfee spent years saying that the Sinaloa Cartel was 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.840 after him. It's an international crime ring mostly known for 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.920 drug trafficking. It was led by El Chapo for decades. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:03.240 There's no evidence of any truth to McAfee's claims about 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.560 the cartel, and the only other person who seemed to 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.640 believe it was Janus. They knew that we were together 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:16.040 and they wanted to have me be sort of their 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:20.680 inside man, you know, giving them information. And Janus says 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.640 that her pimp was in on it. His whole thing 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:25.880 was like, oh my gosh, we're gonna get so much money. 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.480 And my thing was, okay, I'm going to get away 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.479 from you, Like this was my plan. You know, I'm 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:34.320 going to get I'm going to use the situation to 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:40.240 get away from you. While we weren't able to verify 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.760 Janice the story, it's been widely documented that women leaving 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.160 this type of sex work often have a difficult time 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:53.880 shaking off their traffickers. Maybe Janice and McAfee's fears became 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.520 sandwich together. She was convinced the pimp was following her 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.960 every move with macafe, and he was convinced the cartel 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.080 was out to get him. Here's Francois. He ran with 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.000 that story for so long that I think, like any 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.440 good lie, he just at some point he did start 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:18.679 believing himself. It was interesting because I do believe that 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.760 when he was under the influence of batstols, he did 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:27.000 believe the paranoia, the invisible men chasing him. I mean, 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.600 I've seen him starting shooting at the walls from inside 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:35.520 his house. From twenty thirteen through twenty seventeen, Francois was 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:40.760 actively filming with McAfee, often at his home in Lexington, Tennessee. 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.800 I would go to the back door, knock at the door, 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.560 and immediately moved myself out of the frame of the 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:53.320 door against a brick wall, because the chances that he 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.199 would start shooting from inside the house, blazing bullets out 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.800 of his living room or bedroom. Jana's confirmed the story 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.200 and the situation with the shooting in the house. You know, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.240 if you heard something where it sounded like someone was 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:10.440 in are at it, you know, that's what he would do, 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.240 you know, fire, no kind of a warning shot, but 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:19.000 she claims McAfee had reasons to be alarmed. The pimp 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.520 was still around, she says, and still a threat, and 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.920 Janice blames herself for bringing this source of danger into 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.040 McAfee's life. I really felt really guilty, and I felt 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:36.400 a lot like the things that were happening around him 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.480 and why he felt so unsaved was because of me? 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:45.839 Was my fault? Is that why you guys divorced? No? No, no, 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:52.200 it just were just idn't know that there was really 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:56.240 a why we divorced. We just we just did. Janice 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:00.720 and McAfee get divorced in twenty nineteen. They would remain 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.960 partners for the rest of his life. There was always 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.520 a need for me to try to reassure him no, 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:10.520 that I wasn't trying to do him arm. I didn't 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.880 want to do him ARM. So whatever I needed to 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.040 do too to let him know that I was willing 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.760 to do that. Janus didn't go into too many details 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.800 about the divorce, but we know that McAfee was volatile, 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:29.240 that he had a tendency to push people away. Janus 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.400 managed to hang on to his trust, and my interpretation 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.199 is that the divorce was Janice's way of showing her 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.840 commitment that she would still be there without a claim 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:45.120 to his money. For Francois, though, the trust that existed 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:51.760 between him and McAfee that began to wither. Well, I 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.440 think that he started realizing that the projects, it's not 0:12:55.760 --> 0:13:00.520 just a biography that's gonna glorify him and and and 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:05.880 repeat his side of the story or whatever he says 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:11.040 at face value. Eventually, the day that probably felt inevitable came, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.840 McAfee turned on Francois, accusing me being connected to the curtail. 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.760 That's that was part of his m I mean, he 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.040 has He had accused plenty of people in the past 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.480 that they either they had no more use for him 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:31.280 or they were getting too close for him. That's how 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:33.319 we would get rid of people. You know why you're 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:37.079 not talking to to this friend of yours anymore? Oh 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.560 he's my sources just confirmed that he was working with 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.200 the courteils against me. How you know that? Oh, well, 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:51.640 he just bought a new car. These accusations marked the 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:56.400 end of their relationship. When we spoke to Francois, his 0:13:56.600 --> 0:14:00.319 documentary on McAfee had been in the works for about 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:05.240 a decade. Remember, he first started calling news agencies on 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:10.920 McAfee's behalf in twenty twelve, after Greg Fall's murder in Belize. 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:16.680 He still plans to release his project. Francois says he 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:22.280 stopped communicating with McAfee by late twenty seventeen. He then 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.640 watched as McAfee had a sort of career revival by 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:32.040 tweeting about cryptocurrency. It just went on fire. His following 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:36.280 started drawing, and the massive crypto community there so that 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:41.160 he just embraced John. Francois felt like he was seeing 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.440 a whole new community of people taken in by McAfee's 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:51.240 star power. In spite of his addictions and delusions, McAfee 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:55.240 would carve out a next chapter as a cryptocurrency prophet. 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:06.320 That's next. Cryptocurrency became McAfee's major project during the last 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:10.120 years of his life. Our responsibility, i don't think, is 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:15.920 to build the ultimate currency, but to understand the power 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:21.440 that cryptocurrency not developed by governments and institutions, but by people. 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:26.800 Offers us, for the first time in human history, a 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:33.280 chance for absolute financial freedom, where your wallet is your bank. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.680 That's McAfee speaking at a crypto conference in Barcelona in 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:45.440 twenty nineteen. Cryptocurrencies allow people to anonymously exchange money directly 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:50.080 with each other. McAfee saw huge potential in this. He 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.800 saw in it a promise of privacy, a world without 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:58.560 banks or the irs. No one will know what you 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.560 do with your money. Neither should they. It's your fucking money. 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:06.200 You worked for it. That attitude that the government has 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.480 no business meddling with his money would eventually catch up 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.920 with him. He went all in on crypto in twenty seventeen, 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.480 starting a new money making scheme. A few people who 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.880 were part of his failed presidential campaign went to work 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:27.960 for him, and they called themselves Team McAfee. They operated 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:32.200 out of his house in Tennessee. Jimmy Watson, a former 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:37.520 Navy seal, joined McAfee's security team. He still remembers his 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:41.400 first day on the job. John McFee steps out of 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.840 this dark corner in the back of the house. You know, 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.640 I'm looking across the kitchen and across this living room, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.840 and it's all dark and there's bullet holes in the 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:56.880 wall like around his door. Jimmy could see that the 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:01.840 compound was dedicated to crypto. Everybody in the house, everyone 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.480 even the mate I think, has a computer screen at 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.639 the laptop and they're trading on this crazy which looks 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.040 like the stock market. To me. I had heard a bitcoin, 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.639 just very very slightly. But I remember John McFee like 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.800 kind of laughing and screaming out out like how much 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.840 money made that day. Jimmy hadn't spent a lot of 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.240 time online. He spent much of his adult life in 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.520 the Navy, and then he went on to work for Blackwater, 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:34.520 the security contractor that massacred Iraqi civilians in two thousand 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:38.800 and seven. He said he didn't know anything about digital currency, 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.760 and that McAfee took him under his wing. He taught 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.919 me basically like no other teacher had ever talked to 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:47.840 me before, and he taught it to be in a 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.840 way that I can understand cryptocurrency. He and McAfee developed 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:55.199 a close relationship. We look for father figures in our 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.560 life generally psychologically we do. And when we find someone 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:01.879 in our life said we look up, we look up 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.800 to as a mentor or a father figure. We kind 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.919 of cling onto that individual and did we put him 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:11.600 on a pedestal. And that's pretty much what happened with 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.280 me and John McFee with less than a year in 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.960 the job, and so his complete surprise, Jimmy says, McAfee 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.040 gave him a new rank and title. He goes, I 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.159 promoted you the CEO two weeks ago on Twitter and 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:30.120 you didn't see it. You did, and he was like, yeah, 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:31.800 but I'm not gonna pay you extra. So with that 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:36.560 scout relationship we had, Jimmy works all day and all night. 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.560 He doesn't stop, and neither does McAfee. We would be 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.960 up all night, sometimes all night, you know, to four 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.760 or five six in the morning, get maybe two hours 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.679 to sleep and wake up. A normal day with him 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:52.919 would be to go to the Linkuer store, pick up 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.720 a case of Scotch, like a case, sit at his house. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:01.080 He'd blare the TV on loud and he'd do all 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.119 his crypto businesses stuff from his phone, and then maybe 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.640 go to Walmart. He lived a pretty mundane life when 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.840 we weren't traveling because he was very paranoid. He didn't 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:17.560 want to leave the house. Despite the drinking, the paranoia. 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.320 There was a method to the madness. Team McAfee was 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:27.119 always moving forward looking into emerging cryptocurrencies. My colleague hammah 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.800 Miller covers crypto, so twenty seventeen was a pivotal time 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.160 in crypto. Tons of new coins coming out all the time. 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.600 It would be impossible for anyone to keep track of 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.080 these projects, and McAfee was a bit of a guide 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.640 to them. Jimmy's job was to read up on all 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.600 the new cryptocurrencies and pass on to McAfee the ones 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.760 that Jimmy thought were unique or interesting. Most of them 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.399 were getting ready to sell their new tokens to the 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.800 public for the first time. If McAfee liked one, he 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.160 or his team would often reach out to the project 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.840 and the offer to promote it on his Twitter account. 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.280 But he usually had an ulterior motive. He might buy 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:16.320 up that coin himself, so after he promotes it, makes 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.040 it his coin of the day, and the price goes up, 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.400 his own stake would rise, and then he could sell 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:26.320 that cryptocurrency and make a profit. He would also sometimes 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:31.360 charge these projects to get promoted by him, and so 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.479 he was really building a business out of you know, 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:39.159 this idea of becoming a crypto influencer back when that 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:44.280 was a really new phenomenon. Now it's not illegal to 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.240 do a sponsorship or a promotional deal with crypto companies, 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.440 but what could be considered illegal is to not disclose 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:56.359 that you're being paid to promote that cryptocurrency or security. 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:02.600 In addition to working with cryptocurrency companies, McAfee also took 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.640 paid speaking gigs at conferences. He was able to draw 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.320 so much attention to cryptocurrency because he was such an 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:14.679 a vandalist for the movement. His presence on Twitter was 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:21.080 very high profile, very colorful. In twenty seventeen, he tweeted 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:23.680 that the price of a bitcoin would jump to five 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:28.159 hundred thousand dollars within three years, adding if not, I 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:32.720 will eat my own dick on national television. For the record, 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:38.560 bitcoin never got anywhere close to that amount, and McAfee 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:44.199 didn't make good on his promise. The main business of 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.920 Team McAfee was his coin of the day. In twenty seventeen, 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.520 McAfee chose to promote a project called redcoin, a crypto 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.800 token designed to be used as a tip or gratuity 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:01.399 on social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter. This is 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:06.240 redcoin's developer, who goes by the pseudonym tech Adept or 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.400 TIA for short, McAfee certainly was on the radar from 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.560 being a bit of a pioneer in the anti virus space. 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:18.320 He's a computer genius. He's this, you know, but it 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.760 didn't really touch our world at all up until the 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.720 point I checked the data was December twenty fourth, Christmas 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:29.000 Eve that he actually tweeted out, you know, redcoin, the 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:33.720 social coin, go for it, and people did. Ta says 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:38.720 he didn't pay McAfee to promote redcoin. He believes McAfee 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:42.960 found redcoin on his own. Redcoin isn't the company, it's 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:46.080 a group of volunteers who dedicate their spare time to it. 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:50.480 In his tweet, McAfee called red cooin a sleeper and 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:54.159 the most widely used social network coin in the world. 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.040 It was Christmas Eve and you know, the egg nog 0:22:58.119 --> 0:22:59.880 must have been flowing, and it was a great time. 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:08.040 But it ended very quickly. Redcoin hit an all time 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:13.040 high in January twenty eighteen. The crypto data tracker coin 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:18.520 gecko reported that the price surged sixteen from the month before. 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.439 Redcoin has never broken the record price. It reached after 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:31.960 McAfee's tweet. Ten months later, members of Team McAfee reached 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:35.320 out to TA over linked in an email and wanted 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:39.040 to strike a deal with Redcoin for another promotion from McAfee. 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:43.200 It was clear they had no memory of the prior promotion, 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:47.919 which was a major red flag for TA. They mentioned 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:52.640 a million dollar payment just to be involved, and clearly 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:57.439 some sort of significant equity in the company, which doesn't 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:01.119 really exist as such. So I don't even know on 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:03.959 their team how much communication was going on, but clearly 0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:09.320 they were still looking for customers, partners, people to take 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:12.199 money from that they could then promote and make a 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.120 bunch of money, and they did. They were they were 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:23.040 using the crypto community as an ATM. It was November 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.159 twenty eighteen when Team McAfee approached red Coin for that 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:33.040 paid promotion. Around this time, McAfee and his CEO Jimmy 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:37.600 had a falling out. I had a sort of a 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:42.000 mental bakedown, but it was like a spiritual awakening, and 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:46.119 it was like a vail was lifted off of my eyes, 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:49.160 as crazy as that sounds, and it's like I could 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:52.640 see the evil around me and that I just bounced 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.199 and at the cost of pretty much everything to me, 0:24:56.359 --> 0:25:01.680 like I feel utterly used by him. Jimmy says he 0:25:01.800 --> 0:25:05.840 hadn't talked to McAfee since late twenty eighteen or early 0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:11.040 twenty nineteen, but he remembered how he felt during that conversation. 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:14.080 I think he just said, you've played the full Jimmy 0:25:14.480 --> 0:25:18.720 my son basically like I won. And that was really 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:21.639 hard for me because I had I felt like he 0:25:21.680 --> 0:25:24.800 was like a dad to me, a father, And that's 0:25:24.800 --> 0:25:27.600 what you get for thinking those kind of things in life, 0:25:27.960 --> 0:25:30.720 you know. And it was a huge lesson for me 0:25:30.760 --> 0:25:34.720 to learn. But at this moment, in the fall of 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:39.359 twenty eighteen, McAfee has bigger problems than Jimmy all the 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:44.120 Red coin deal. McAfee gets word that the federal government 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:48.840 is planning to press charges against him. Janie tells Our 0:25:48.920 --> 0:25:53.480 contributing reporter Matthew Bremner that she and McAfee make plans 0:25:53.520 --> 0:25:57.960 to leave the country. John at gunn he gotten a 0:25:58.080 --> 0:26:01.680 letter from one of his attorneys, and they had said 0:26:01.720 --> 0:26:04.320 that they had been called to give testimony to a 0:26:04.400 --> 0:26:10.360 grand jury. He then gotten word that he himself, myself, 0:26:10.440 --> 0:26:14.720 and four other people were named in this grand jury. Indictment. 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:17.439 It was supposed to We weren't supposed to know about it, 0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:21.160 but obviously John you know, has his ways to get 0:26:21.200 --> 0:26:24.399 information until he found out about that in November, until 0:26:24.440 --> 0:26:27.520 we ended up leaving on January of the next year, 0:26:27.640 --> 0:26:32.080 January twenty nineteen, go directly to space. No no, no. 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:36.800 We went to the Bahamas. We drove from Cattara's Island. 0:26:36.960 --> 0:26:40.560 We drove from there down to Miami, and then from 0:26:40.560 --> 0:26:46.560 Miami we took our boat, the Freedom Boat. We were 0:26:46.680 --> 0:26:51.160 unable to confirm this chain of events with McAfee's attorney. However, 0:26:51.680 --> 0:26:54.800 we spoke to a legal expert who told us that 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:59.320 it's unusual for attorneys to give grand jury testimony during 0:26:59.400 --> 0:27:04.439 a federal investigation. That said, it's very common for people 0:27:04.600 --> 0:27:09.359 under investigation for white collar crimes to know they're being investigated. 0:27:10.280 --> 0:27:15.200 What McAfee did that was uncommon was flee Today January 0:27:15.200 --> 0:27:19.480 twenty seconds, the IRS has convened a grand jury in 0:27:19.520 --> 0:27:25.080 the state of Tennessee to charge myself, my wife, Missus McAfee, 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:33.240 four of my campaign workers with unspecified IRS crimes of 0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:37.080 a felonious nature. They want to silence me. I will 0:27:37.119 --> 0:27:42.480 not allow that. I am running my campaign in exile 0:27:42.960 --> 0:27:48.560 on this boat. If you didn't catch that, McAfee attempted 0:27:48.560 --> 0:27:52.639 to run for president again as the Libertarian candidate in 0:27:52.680 --> 0:27:57.520 the twenty twenty election. While he was at c he 0:27:57.600 --> 0:28:00.720 was still very active online and closely followed by the 0:28:00.760 --> 0:28:05.680 crypto community. He insisted he would continue to campaign with 0:28:05.760 --> 0:28:09.159 his partner Janus by his signed even as he was 0:28:09.240 --> 0:28:13.159 being investigated. I will not allow them to imprison me 0:28:13.320 --> 0:28:17.199 and shut my voice down. While he was on the lamp, 0:28:17.600 --> 0:28:20.280 he made this recording that was played to an audience 0:28:20.560 --> 0:28:25.919 on the crypto themed cruise. Hello everyone, I'm John McAfee. 0:28:26.240 --> 0:28:29.720 I'm very sorry I cannot be with you enjoying this 0:28:30.240 --> 0:28:33.360 wonderful cruise that you're on. The reason I'm not with 0:28:33.440 --> 0:28:36.879 you is had I attempted to go, I would have 0:28:36.920 --> 0:28:41.280 been picked up by interbalm and carted off back to 0:28:41.360 --> 0:28:46.440 America to face charges for tax evasion. It is true. 0:28:46.640 --> 0:28:49.960 I have not paid taxes in eight years. I have 0:28:50.040 --> 0:28:53.720 not filed taxes in eight years. I will not file 0:28:53.800 --> 0:29:00.680