Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in a Barcelona prison cell, just hours after a Spanish court agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges.
The Catalan Justice Department said prison medics tried to resuscitate him, but were not successful.
It said in a statement that "everything indicates" Mr McAfee took his own life.
A controversial figure, Mr McAfee's company released the first commercial anti-virus software.
It helped to spark a multi-billion dollar industry in the computer world.
In October 2020, he was arrested in Spain, and accused of 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.
The US Justice Department alleged that Mr McAfee evaded tax liability by having his income paid into bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchange accounts in the names of nominees.
Tennessee prosecutors charged the 75-year-old McAfee with evading taxes after failing to report income made from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consultancy work, as well as income from speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary.
The charges refer to the three fiscal years from 2016 to 2018, according to the Spanish court’s ruling on Wednesday.
“The court agrees to grant the extradition of John David McAfee as requested by the American judicial authorities for the crimes referred to in the tax offence indictments for years 2016 to 2018,” said the 16-page ruling.
In a hearing held via videolink earlier this month, McAfee argued that the charges against him were politically motivated and said he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he was returned to the US.
The entrepreneur was arrested last October at Barcelona’s international airport as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul. A judge ordered at that time that McAfee should be held in jail while awaiting the outcome of a hearing on extradition.
His arrest came a day after the US indictment was made public, although it had been issued in June.
Since making a fortune with his eponymous antivirus software in the 1980s that still bears his name, McAfee became a self-styled cryptocurrency guru, claiming to make $2,000 a day.
McAfee was a guest on our Anonymous Bites Back podcast. This episode is available here:
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57589822
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/23/john-mcafee-dead-spain-prison-extradition