Author Archives: Tim Starks

John McAfee arrested in Spain, charged with tax evasion

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The Justice Department unsealed an indictment Monday against cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee following his arrest in Spain. McAfee stands accused of evading taxes, in part by using cryptocurrency. McAfee founded the antivirus firm that bears his name, but has spent at least a decade in frequent brushes with the law, and not just in the United States. The indictment, dated from June, does not allege that McAfee received any money from, or otherwise had any connection to his former company during the period he allegedly failed to pay taxes, from 2014 to 2018. McAfee left the security firm more than 20 years ago. The indictment states that his millions of dollars in income during the four-year stretch came from promotion of cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements and the rights to his story for a documentary. McAfee, the indictment alleges, routed his income into cryptocurrency exchange accounts and bank accounts of others, and sought to conceal assets, including […]

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Helping to pay off ransomware hackers could draw big penalties from the feds

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Anyone who helps ransomware victims pay off hackers who are under U.S. sanctions could face stiff punishment themselves, the Treasury Department said Thursday. The advisory from Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control served notice to financial institutions and cyber insurance companies — as well as cybersecurity firms that help ransomware victims identify and respond to attacks — that they could suffer fines if they aided payments to attackers from places like Russia, North Korea or Iran that are on the U.S. sanctions list. And OFAC indicated it would be inclined to be strict about it: Those civil penalties could be levied against companies that didn’t know they were facilitating ransom payments to hackers on its sanctions list. “OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations based on strict liability, meaning that a person subject to U.S. jurisdiction may be held civilly liable even if it did not know or have reason […]

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