John McAfee – founder of antivirus software giant McAfee – has died aged 75.
According to Cyberscoop, McAfee was awaiting extradition to the US on charges of tax evasion. His transfer to the US had been authorized by Spain’s High Court only hours before his suspected suicide.
The publication noted that Spanish justice officials had told Spanish newspaper El Mundo that “everything indicates that it could be a death by suicide”. Multiple news agencies reported that McAfee had been found dead in a jail cell in Barcelona.
McAfee had faced up to 30 years in prison after he was convicted for evading taxes in the US. He was charged by prosecutors in Tennessee with failing to report income from cryptocurrency promotions, selling the rights to his life story to a filmmaker and speaking engagements.
In June 2020, he was also charged by US prosecutors with dodging the Internal Revenue Services through cryptocurrency investments as well as purchasing a boat and real estate in someone else’s name.
Furthermore, a separate complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission stated that McAfee had made $23m in 2017 and 2018 by persuading his Twitter followers to invest in initial coin offerings that he was paid to market himself.
McAfee founded his antivirus software company in 1987. He left McAfee in 1994 – two years after the firm went public – and sold his remaining stake in the company. McAfee was acquired by technology juggernaut Intel in 2010.
Copyright © 2021 FinTech Global
