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John McAfee, the antivirus-pioneer-turned-cryptocurrency-enthusiast, alleged murderer, and alleged tax evader, was found dead in a prison cell in Spain, according to multiple reports by Spanish media.
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On Wednesday, a Spanish court ruled that McAfee was to be extradited to the United States, where he faced charges for tax fraud. News reports say he was found dead and the authorities suspect he died by suicide.
The Mossos d’Esquadra, the local police in the Spanish region of Catalonia, where McAfee was held, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The US Department of Justice also did not respond.
McAfee, 75, made a fortune in the late 1980s and early 1990s after he founded McAfee Associates, one of the first companies to make a computer antivirus. His involvement in the cybersecurity world practically stopped in 1994, when he resigned from the company. Since then, his life has been mired in one controversy after another. McAfee dipped his toes in several ventures, such as yoga, herbal antibiotics, and more recently cryptocurrency.
In 2012, when he was living in Belize, McAfee was accused of murder after one of his neighbors who was found dead. A 2016 documentary by director Nanette Burstein laid out the case against McAfee, who was able to escape from Belize and avoid any repercussions.
More recently, McAfee became a minor celebrity in the world of cryptocurrency for pumping and dumping different digital coins, activities which earned him and his team an indictment for fraud this year by a Manhattan federal court.
In one of his last tweets, McAfee complained about life in prison.
“There is much sorrow in prison, disguised as hostility. The sorrow is plainly visible even in the most angry faces,” he wrote. “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.”
