John McAfee has always been a controversial figure in both the financial and tech worlds, but as of late, the software engineer is on the run from U.S. tax authorities. He’s now posing a very interesting offer to Cuba: create its own cryptocurrency so they can evade certain U.S. sanctions.
McAfee Thumbs His Nose at the Authorities
McAfee states that the U.S.’s gathering of income tax is an “illegal” practice. He’s also planning to run for the Libertarian Party as a U.S. presidential candidate in 2020. The software mogul is already off to a bad start. What makes him think he even has a chance of running for president if he owes back taxes or is in a hard battle with the IRS?
Many countries, including Cuba and Iran, are facing new sanctions since Donald Trump came into office as president in 2017. McAfee seems to think that Cuba can save itself from some serious hassles by creating its own digital asset, which will offer the anonymity the country needs to survive and move past any regulations enforced by the U.S.
In a recent interview, he explains:
It would be trivial to get around the U.S. government’s embargo through a clever system of currency, so I made a formal offer to help them for free… on a private channel through Twitter… You can’t just create a coin and expect it to fly. You must base it on the proper blockchain, have it structured such that it meets the specific needs of a country or economic situation. There are probably less than ten people in the world who know how to do that and I’m certainly one of them.
McAfee avoided paying income taxes for approximately eight years, citing “ideological reasons.” He has since been indicted by the Internal Revenue Service and fled to the Bahamas, where he lived for several years. He has since relocated to Cuba after discovering that the U.S. was potentially looking to have him extradited back to his home country.
For the past seven years, McAfee’s behavior has been questionable to say the least. Previously, the software founder lived in the Central American country of Belize up until 2012. His leave was brought on by police authorities within the country seeking to question him regarding the murder of a neighbor. He has since relocated to Cuba with his wife and four large dogs, and assumes that the country will not turn him into the U.S.
Both Cuba and the U.S. have a history of hiding criminals with “political overtones” from one another.
You Won’t Crush My Voice
McAfee explains that America is simply on a mission to silence him:
They just want to put me in jail and not let me speak again. I’m not going to allow that because I have too much to say.