On Wednesday afternoon June 23, the founder of antivirus company McAfee, John McAfee, was found dead in a Spanish prison near Barcelona, after the Spanish high court authorised his extradition to the United States.
It was reported that the British technology entrepreneur committed suicide in a prison cell, just hours after a preliminary ruling for his extradition to the United States on charges of tax evasion. The charges carried a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
McAfee was arrested last October at Barcelona’s international airport as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul.
In a statement, the Catalan justice department said that prison officers and medics had tried to save the life of a 75-year-old man but had been unsuccessful. After attempts to save him failed, he was pronounced dead.
“Judicial staff have been dispatched to the prison and are investigating the cause of death,” the statement said, adding that “Everything points to death by suicide.
Amid reports of McAfee’s alleged death by suicide, his December 2019 tweet claiming that he will never die by suicide has surfaced online.
In his tweet, McAfee claimed that if he ever died by suicide it meant that he did not and was actually “whacked”. He had also alleged that the US government might be trying to kill him.
The McAfee Anti-virus was the first commercial anti-virus software launched back in 1987. It was eventually sold off to Intel in 2011.
McAfee had claimed to have fathered at least 47 children throughout his life and met his current wife after she solicited him for prostitution.
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