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John McAfee, the eccentric tech mogul who made his fortune developing antivirus software, was found dead in a jail cell near Barcelona on Wednesday, just hours after Spain’s National Court ruled that he was to be extradited to the United States to face tax evasion charges. He was 75.
The news of his death was first reported by El Pais, who said he died by suicide. An official then confirmed the news of his death to the Associated Press, with a statement from the Catalan government saying a 75-year-old US citizen awaiting extradition could not be resuscitated.
McAfee was arrested last October in Spain, charged with failing to pay millions of dollars in income taxes from 2014 to 2018 in Tennessee. He also faced charges from Manhattan federal investigators over his involvement in a “pump and dump” cryptocurrency scheme.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Spanish court ruled McAfee would face extradition, after months of him claiming that the charges against him were politically motivated and designed to ensure he never left prison again.
The tax evasion charges weren’t the first time McAfee had been connected to a criminal investigation. In 2012, McAfee was wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of his neighbor.
For months, McAfee had been tweeting from prison.
McAfee, who sold his software company in the 1990s, claimed to have fathered 47 children during his life.
“Father of many, loved by few,” his wife Janice wrote in a letter posted on Twitter on Sunday for Father’s Day.
In the letter, she claimed that the US government was “determined to have John die in prison to make an example of him for speaking out against the corruption within their government agencies.”
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