Madrid: Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee was found dead in his prison cell in Spain on Wednesday, a prison official said.
A spokesman for the prison system in the northeastern Catalonia region said the 75-year-old was found dead in his cell on the Brian 2 peninsula near Barcelona, ”apparently by suicide”, reported AFP news agency.
McAfee was arrested at Barcelona airport in October 2020, when he was about to board a flight to Istanbul. Since then he is in jail.
Antivirus software pioneer in US looking for tax evasion. He is accused of deliberately failing to file tax returns between 2014 and 2018, even after doing consulting work, earning millions from cryptocurrency and selling the rights to his life story.
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If convicted in the US on this charge, he could face up to 30 years in prison.
Earlier, Spain’s national court on Wednesday approved his extradition to the United States. The decision could be appealed and then extradition would require approval from the Spanish cabinet.
According to a US extradition request filed in November and cited in the ruling, McAfee earned more than 10 million euros ($12 million) over four years, but never filed a tax return.
As AFP reports, “In order to hide his income and assets from the Internal Revenue Service … the defendant ordered a portion of his income to be paid to the straw men and placed the property in his name.”
The Spanish court’s decision took cognizance of offenses that took place between 2016 and 2018.
McAfee made a fortune in the 1980s with the antivirus software that still goes by his name. He became a self-proclaimed crypto-currency guru, claiming to make $2,000 in a day.
In a tweet on June 16, he wrote that US officials believed he had “hidden crypto. I wish I had”.
“My remaining assets have all been confiscated. My friends vanished for fear of association. I have nothing. Still, I regret nothing,” the digital giant once posted over a million on Twitter. wrote to the followers.
In recent years, McAfee became a major booster of cryptocurrencies by joining the bitcoin bandwagon as CEO of MGT Capital Investments Inc.
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