On June 23, British-born US antivirus software entrepreneur, crypto advocate John McAfee (75) committed suicide in a Barcelona prison, following the Spanish high court’s decision to extradite him to the US on tax evasion charges, Reuters reported, citing his lawyer.
McAfee “died by hanging as his nine months in prison brought him to despair,” per the report.
In May, he said that given his age, he would spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted in the United States.
“I am hoping that the Spanish court will see the injustice of this, the United States wants to use me as an example,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
The entrepreneur was arrested in Spain in October 2020. The US Department of Justice charged McAfee with tax evasion and willful failure to file tax returns. In 2019, McAfee said that he had not paid US income taxes for eight years for ideological reasons.
The US believes I have hidden crypto. I wish I did but it has dissolved through the many hands of Team McAfee (your belief is not required), and my remaining assets are all seized. My friends evaporated through fear of association.
I have nothing.
Yet, I regret nothing.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 16, 2021
Also, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged McAfee and his bodyguard Jimmy Watson, Jr. with violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, McAfee with violating the anti-touting provisions, and Watson with aiding and abetting McAfee’s violations.
McAfee founded the software company McAfee Associates in 1987 and ran it until 1994, when he resigned from the company, per Wikipedia. The company was purchased by Intel in 2011, though it still bears the McAfee brand name. McAfee’s wealth peaked in 2007 at USD 100m, before his investments plummeted in the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
McAfee also unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for President of the United States in 2016 and 2020.
The last public post on McAfee’s Twitter profile:
In a democracy, power is given not taken.
But it is still power.
Love, compassion, caring have no use for it. But it is fuel for greed, hostility, jealousy…
All power corrupts.
Take care which powers you allow a democracy to wield.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 18, 2021
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