John McAfee Biography – Wiki
John McAfee was the tech pioneer and former presidential candidate and the controversial antivirus software magnate who’d had multiple recent run-ins with the US law has died. McAfee was awaiting extradition in a Spanish prison after being charged with tax evasion in the United States last year.
Age
John McAfee has died at the age of 75-years-old.
Charged & Arrested
McAfee was being extradited for tax evasion in 2016, 2017, and 2018, El Pais reported. He was accused of not disclosing money earned from cryptocurrency, speaking fees, and selling his rights for a documentary about himself, Business Insider reported.
McAfee was facing a 10-count indictment, New York Post reported. The indictment claimed he had dodged millions in taxes. He was also accused of registering purchases for a yacht, car, and property under a different person’s name. McAfee claimed the tax evasion charges were politically motivated.
A separate indictment accused him of pumping and dumping cryptocurrencies, New York Post reported.
On June 10, McAfee tweeted that he was “old and content with food and a bed but for the young prison is a horror.”
On June 8 he tweeted that he was having a down day and did not believe that even 1% of his Twitter followers were actually reading his posts. He wrote, “Ramblings of an old man lost in a near-infinite Twitter-verse – like tears in rain.”
There is much sorrow in prison, disguised as hostility.
The sorrow is plainly visible even in the most angry faces.
I’m old and content with food and a bed but for the young prison is a horror – a reflection of the minds of those who conceived them.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 10, 2021
In his last pinned tweet, he said that he did not have any hidden crypto as the U.S. government believed, and all his crypto was dissolved into Team McAfee and his other assets had been seized. He said he didn’t regret anything, but he also didn’t have anything.
The US believes I have hidden crypto. I wish I did but it has dissolved through the many hands of Team McAfee (your belief is not required), and my remaining assets are all seized. My friends evaporated through fear of association.
I have nothing.
Yet, I regret nothing.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 16, 2021
McAfee founded McAfee Associates, the antivirus software company.
McAfee had a cellmate at the prison, but that person was not in the cell around the time that McAfee was found dead, a prison official, who asked not to be named, told CNN. The official added the other person was out doing other normal activities at the prison. Asked if authorities had imposed special monitoring measures on McAfee in his cell, the official said, “I’m not aware of that.”
McAfee was arrested in Spain in October after being indicted in the United States for tax evasion months earlier. He allegedly failed to file taxes for four years despite earning millions in income between 2014 and 2018 from promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary, according to court documents. The amount he owed was not specified in the indictment.
The Spanish judges approved his extradition to face charges for the 2016, 2017, and 2018 tax years.
In a virtual hearing in Spanish court earlier this month, McAfee argued that the US tax evasion charges against him were politically motivated, the Associated Press reported.
McAfee — founder of the eponymous antivirus software firm, with which he is no longer affiliated — was also indicted in March on separate fraud and money laundering charges. The US Department of Justice alleged that he and a business partner participated in a scheme that earned more than $13 million by falsely promoting cryptocurrencies to unwitting investors.
The final two decades of McAfee’s life included a somewhat bizarre series of events.
In 2012, McAfee briefly vanished after fleeing his home in Belize because local police tried to question him on the death of his neighbor. (He has denied involvement in the death and claimed he fled because he feared for his life.)
He spent time in Guatemala and then moved to Montreal, Canada, where he worked on a documentary about his life. He ran for US president in 2016 as a Libertarian, and launched a new security product that he called “a f—ing game-changer.”
Cause Of Death
John McAfee, tech pioneer, and former presidential candidate was found dead in a Spanish jail cell while awaiting extradition to the United States, The New York Post reported.
Hours before he was found dead, Spain had approved the United States’ request to extradite McAfee, Business Insider reported. McAfee was in jail since he was arrested at a Barcelona airport in October.
According to a translated version of the local publication El Pais, McAfee was found hanging in his cell by prison guard officials. Officials reportedly tried to resuscitate him when he was found but were not able to save him. Officials in Spain are reporting that he died by suicide.
An autopsy identifying the exact cause of death is not yet available. The New York Post reported that police are investigating his death and officials told a local publication that “everything points to suicide.”
After news of his death was disclosed, an edit was made to his Wikipedia page claiming that he was murdered.
The page briefly wrote that he was “a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and probably murder victim.” However, there has been no evidence currently released that indicated murder. The page was quickly edited again and the claim was taken down.
