Hours after a Spanish court approved the extradition of tech innovator, John McAfee, from Spain to face US tax evasion charges, the controversial antivirus software magnate is reported to be found dead following a suicide bid in the Spanish prison.
Earlier on Wednesday, a three-judge panel at Spain's National Court in Madrid ruled that McAfee could be extradited to the United States to face charges there. John McAfee, 75 was awaiting extradition in a Spanish prison after being charged with tax evasion in the United States last year.
According to the Spanish prison authorities, McAfee was found dead in his cell in a prison near Barcelona on Wednesday around 1 p.m. the cause of death is still under investigation.
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.
In a virtual hearing in Spanish court earlier this month, McAfee argued that the US tax evasion charges against him were politically motivated.
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.
In 2012, McAfee briefly vanished after fleeing his home in Belize because local police tried to question him on the death of his neighbour. (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 — Everykey — that he called “a f—ing game-changer.”
