John McAfee, the creator of McAfee antivirus software was found dead in a prison cell in Barcelona.
The official autopsy reports have confirmed that McAfee died by suicide in the Spanish prison cell. He died following the Spanish court judgement on his extradition to the United States.
The court had allowed his extradition to the United States, where he was wanted for tax evasion. Seemingly distraught McAfee had expressed his anguish over spending the rest of his life in prison if he were to be convicted in the United States.
McAfee had also tweeted about his life in jail a few days before his death.
The tweet read:
“There is much sorrow in prison, disguised as hostility. The sorrow is plainly visible even in the angry faces. I am old and content with food and a bed but for the young prison is a horror- a reflection of the minds of the those who conceived them.”
A report published in the Spanish-language newspaper El Pais confirmed that McAfee died by suicide while awaiting his extradition to the US. It was believed that McAfee had a suicide note in his pocket when he was found by the guards at the cell. The content of the suicide note not revealed by the sources. His family has now requested a second independent autopsy.
Widow blames the US.
McAfee’s widow Janice has said that her husband was not suicidal when she last spoke to him. “His last words to me were ‘I love you and I will call you in the evening. Those words are not words of somebody who is suicidal,” she told the reporters. She blamed the US while addressing the media outside the cell where she went to collect her late husband’s belongings.
McAfee was found dead hours after the Spanish court had ordered his extradition to the United States. His wife said that they were prepared for that decision and had a plan of action already in place.“I blame the U.S. authorities for this tragedy: Because of these politically motivated charges against him my husband is now dead,” she said.
McAfee was arrested in October 2020 for not paying taxes between 2014 and 2018.
It was discovered that despite making good money, McAfee refrained from paying taxes. He avoided paying taxes by not taking his income in his bank account.
He allegedly got his money paid in the other bank account and cryptocurrency accounts. In 2019, he said that his ideological reasons did not permit him to do so.
McAfee had left the United States in 2019 following his brief stint as a Chief Executive Officer at a cryptocurrency firm. He was believed to be having a gala time with his wife, dogs and staff on his mega-yacht until he was arrested in 2020.