British-American software developer John McAfee has been found dead in his cell in Barcelona at the age of 75. Catalan justice confirms his death, Reuters news agency reports. The businessman has been in jail since he was arrested in Barcelona last October for tax fraud in the United States.
Hours before McAfee was found dead, the Spanish court approved extradition to the US. There he faced a 30-year prison sentence. According to Catalan justice, it is probably a suicide. McAfee’s attorney tells Reuters that his client hanged himself.
Last March, McAfee was also indicted on suspicions of money laundering and cryptocurrency fraud; he touted several digital currencies on Twitter, which he then quickly sold himself as the price rose. According to the American authorities, he eventually earned 13 million dollars.
discredit
McAfee is best known for the antivirus software company of the same name, which he founded in 1987. In 1994 he had himself bought out; he made millions from the business. Since then, he has often been discredited.
In 2012, he was wanted internationally on suspicion of murdering his American neighbor in Belize. He was on the run for three weeks and was eventually arrested in Guatemala. Not because of the murder, but because he allegedly entered the country illegally. The murder case never went to trial.
A few years later, he was also arrested for driving under the influence and possession of a firearm. He was arrested in the Dominican Republic two years ago. Weapons and ammunition would have been found on the yacht he was traveling with.
The last tweet from McAfee’s account was a retweet of a message from his wife, Janice McAfee. In it she writes that the past few months in Spanish prison have been difficult for him. “Mentally, physically and financially. But he is not deterred from continuing to speak the truth.”