by Tyler O’Neil
Spanish prison authorities found anti-virus software company founder John McAfee dead in his prison cell in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday, shortly after Spainâs National Court approved his extradition to the United States to face criminal tax evasion charges. While authorities are suspecting suicide, McAfeeâs response to the death of convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein makes McAfeeâs demise seem rather suspicious.
âI 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,â McAfee posted on Twitter from prison last year.
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
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo first reported the death of the 75-year-old McAfee, CNBC reported. Reuters and the Associated Press confirmed the death. McAfeeâs lawyer told Reuters that his client apparently hanged himself. El Mundo, citing the Catalan Justice Department, reported that the prisonâs medical professionals attempted to resuscitate the prisoner.
Authorities arrested McAfee at the Barcelona international airport last October on tax evasion charges, which are pending in federal court in Tennessee.
According to the indictment, McAfee earned millions of dollars in income from promoting cryptocurrencies, from consulting work, from speaking engagements, and from selling the rights to his life story for a documentary.
âFrom 2014 to 2018, McAfee allegedly failed to file tax returns, despite receiving considerable income from these sources,â the U.S. Justice Department alleged in October. In March, prosecutors in Manhattan federal court charged both McAfee and Jimmy Watson with an alleged âpump-and-dumpâ scheme in which they allegedly bought up large quantities of cheap cryptocurrency and then promoted them online with âfalse and misleading tweetsâ to jack up their market prices.
While the extradition agreement might have provided McAfee with a motive to take his own life, his death seems rather suspicious after the tweet above.