Anti-virus pioneer turned fugitive John McAfee was found dead in prison after the court allowed for his extradition. 75-year-old John was the founder of the McAfee antivirus software business that had the same name. He was serving time in the Spanish jail on tax evasion charges. On Wednesday, the court announced that he is free to be extradited to the US, after which, news of his immediate death was reported.
Details
On Wednesday, the security officials of the Spanish jail called Brians 2 were thrown in a chaotic situation when they found John McAfee hung. The personnel tried to revive him, but the jail’s medical team called the time of his death.
Although the regional Catalan govt didn’t issue the statement with McAfee’s name, the statement did mention a 75-year-old US citizen who will be extradited to the country. Earlier, the Spanish Court had cleared the extradition papers of antivirus pioneer John McAfee to US where he was wanted for tax-related crimes If McAfee would’ve been extradited, he was sure to serve jail time of up to 30 years on sentence of up to 30 years.
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Detention in Spanish Jail
In 2020, McAfee was detained in Spain after being accused by the US prosecutors of not filing taxes for several years. According to DoJ (Department of Justice), McAfee earned his money by “promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary”, and didn’t pay taxes by channeling cryptocurrency through multiple bank accounts.
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John McAfee’s Defence
Meanwhile, he claimed that he had been paying taxes and further alleged that he was facing political heat for calling out corruption and taking a stand against the fiat money system where the Federal banks control the supply of money.
To that, the Spanish court ruled-
“The social, economic or any other relevance the defense claims the appellant possesses does not grant him any immunity.”
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McAfee’s Controversial & Eventful Life
Throughout his life, McAfee had remained a controversial figure to say the least. Even before his tax troubles, he was under public and govt scrutiny when he was called the “person of interest” in a case of death of his neighbour in 2012.
In 2020, he was accused by the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) for promoting ICO (initial coin offerings) and was alleged to have pretended to be an impartial party in the situation, but had received over $23 million for stirring public interest.
In 2015, he also ran for the US President as a Libertarian.
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Founding McAfee Associates
In 1987, John McAfee founded a small software company called the McAfee Associates. He founded the computer-security company to combat the Brain virus that originated from Pakistan and was known as the first virus that attacked personal computers.
McAfee’s initial idea was to put the antivirus on several computer bulletin boards and give it away for free. He hoped that by doing so, people users will also install the antivirus on the computers at offices. That’s exactly what happened and by 1990, McAfee started earning a revenue of $5 million – as licensing fee.
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Exiting The Security Company, Losing Fortune
Continuing on the road of explosive growth, McAfee went public in 1992 and through this, John McAfee earned $80 million. In 1994, he resigned the company and the company continued growing without his leadership.
Meanwhile, after leaving his company, McAfee saw his $100 million fortune to be reduced down to $4 million, which led him to sell of his assets, fly in economy class and moved to a Central American city where he lived within his means.
