Tech tycoon John McAfee died by suicide in a Spanish prison cell Wednesday while awaiting extradition to the United States on tax evasion charges, according to his attorney Javier Villalba.
Spain’s Department of Justice said multiple attempts to resuscitate the 75-year-old British American computer programmer and business magnate failed, according to Spanish outlet El Mundo. Hours earlier, the country’s National Court approved McAfee’s extradition to the U.S., where he was wanted on tax-related criminal charges that carried a maximum prison sentence of 30 years. McAfee was indicted for tax evasion in Tennessee in October 2020 and again in New York in March of this year for money laundering conspiracy crimes tied to cryptocurrency.
The cause of McAfee’s death was not immediately announced by Spanish authorities, but Villalba said his client hung himself on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Villalba said the late entrepreneur had more opportunities to appeal his conviction but said his client could not stand staying in jail any longer. “This is the result of a cruel system that had no reason to keep this man in jail for so long,” Villalba said.
In a court hearing in May, McAfee referenced his old age and noted he would spend the rest of his life behind bars if he were to be convicted in the U.S., adding he had hoped “the Spanish court will see the injustice of this.” He also expressed the belief that the U.S. wanted to “use me as an example.”
McAfee, who was arrested in October at Barcelona’s International Airport, was accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of making more than $23 million from the promotion of at least seven cryptocurrency initial coin offerings on his Twitter account without publicly disclosing his ownership in each one.
After his arrest, McAfee made a reference to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in July 2019, charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy for allegedly abusing girls as young as 14. He pleaded not guilty to the charges before he was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell in August of that year. His death was ruled a suicide by the New York City medical examiner’s office, but skeptics insist on questioning the circumstances of his death.
I am content in here. I have friends.
The food is good. All is well.
Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 15, 2020
Before that, in 2019, McAfee was ordered to pay $25 million in a wrongful death lawsuit related to the killing of his former neighbor Gregory Faull in 2012. McAfee posted a statement to Twitter that said he was “never suspected of murder” by authorities and refused to pay.
The antivirus software tycoon ran an unsuccessful campaign to be the Libertarian Party presidential nominee in 2016 and again in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. election.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Villalba and the Spanish Department of Justice but did not immediately receive a response.
