John McAfee, a tech entrepreneur and the creator of famous anti-virus software, McAfee VirusScan, was found dead in a prison cell on Wednesday.
John McFee arrested for tax evasion in Spain
McAfee was arrested for failing to file tax returns for four years, despite earning millions from consulting work, speaking engagements, crypto-currencies, and selling the rights to his life story.
According to BBC, the US Justice Department alleged that McAfee dodged tax liability by having his income paid into bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchange accounts in the names of nominees.
He was also accused of hiding his assets, including a yacht and real estate property, by putting them under other people’s names.
Spain’s National Court authorised his extradition to the US to face the charges on Wednesday morning, 23 June 2021.
John McAfee allegedly commits suicide
According to CNN, the tech pioneer was found dead in a prison cell near Barcelona just before his extradition to the US to face his tax evasion charges. Reports also say that prison medics tried to resuscitate him but were eventually unsuccessful.
A statement from the Catalonia regional government Justice Department said “everything indicates” that McAfee could have died by suicide.
McAfee the controversial tech figure
McAfee was open about his life, which included drugs, guns, sex, and had a history of legal woes spanning from Tennessee to Central America to the Caribbean, according to The Guardian.
He had several run-ins with the law.
In 2012 he was wanted for questioning in connection with the death of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November that year on the island in Belize where both men lived.
At some point, he even admitted to being intimately involved with teenage girls.
“I do have teenage girlfriends and many at a time,” he said in an interview included in a 2016 documentary.