John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail cell

Antivirus software creator John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail | CBC News:

Jun 23, 2021  - "John McAfee, the creator of McAfee antivirus software, was found dead in his jail cell near Barcelona in an apparent suicide Wednesday, hours after a Spanish court approved his extradition to the United States to face tax charges punishable by decades in prison, authorities said. 

"The eccentric cryptocurrency promoter and tax opponent whose history of legal troubles spanned from Tennessee to Central America to the Caribbean was discovered at the Brians 2 penitentiary in northeastern Spain. Security personnel tried to revive him, but the jail's medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan government said....

"The statement didn't identify McAfee by name, but said he was a 75-year-old U.S. citizen awaiting extradition to the country. A Catalan government source familiar with the case who was not authorized to be named in media reports confirmed to The Associated Press that it was McAfee.

"Spain's National Court on Monday ruled in favour of extraditing McAfee, 75, who had argued in a hearing earlier this month that the charges against him by prosecutors in Tennessee were politically motivated and that he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he was returned to the U.S. The court's ruling was made public on Wednesday and was open for appeal, with any final extradition order also needing to get approval from the Spanish Cabinet.

"The entrepreneur was arrested last October at Barcelona's international airport. A judge ordered at that time that McAfee should be held in jail while awaiting the outcome of extradition proceedings.

"McAfee had been charged the same month in Tennessee with evading taxes after failing to report income from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consulting work, made speaking engagements and sold the rights to his life story for a documentary. The criminal charges carried a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

"Nishay Sanan, the Chicago-based attorney defending him on those cases, said by phone that ...  Spanish authorities have not given his legal team a cause of death, and he wants to know if there were video cameras in McAfee's cell or in the prison. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Memphis declined to comment Wednesday."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/john-mcafee-found-dead-prison-spain-1.6077412