According to Spanish media reports, on June 23, 2021, John McAfee was found dead in his prison cell. The founder of McAfee, an antivirus pioneer and a well-known cryptocurrency enthusiast in recent years, McAfee was arrested in the fall of 2020 for tax evasion and securities law violations.
Arrest
In the fall of 2020, McAfee founder John McAfee was arrested in Spain after being charged with tax evasion, willful tax evasion and violation of securities laws.
According to the indictment of the US Department of Justice, McAfee did not pay taxes on funds that he earned between 2014 and 2018. Also, the US government said that McAfee had long avoided meeting with tax inspectors, and tried to hide his assets, including real estate and a yacht (usually by transferring ownership to other people).
In the spring of 2021, the US authorities brought a series of new charges against McAfee related to his Twitter activity. The fact is that, according to the authorities, he made millions of dollars from his numerous subscribers, advertising various cryptocurrencies (and also did not pay any taxes on this). In addition, it was noted that in recent years, McAfee regularly received royalties for various performances and consultations, and also earned the sale of the rights to film the story of his life.
For example, according to investigators, fraud and money laundering brought McAfee more than $ 13,000,000. Jimmy Gale Watson Jr., who in recent years was responsible for McAfee’s personal security and was also part of his “cryptocurrency team”, also appeared in court documents.
Officials claimed that McAfee was withholding information about the paid recommendations he regularly made on Twitter, making false claims to a large audience of his followers. So, in 2017-2018, John McAfee has repeatedly promoted various cryptocurrency ICOs on his Twitter. In fact, it was only paid advertising, which McAfee was silent about, and even actively denied this fact, although subscribers regularly asked him about it. As a result, McAfee and his partners earned more than $ 11 million from such “advertising,” the US Department of Justice said.
All this time, McAfee was in custody in Spain, awaiting a decision on extradition, and only on “spring” charges he faced up to 30 years in prison. Since McAfee was already 75 years old, he had to spend the rest of his life in prison.
“Found Dead”
On the evening of June 23, 2021, there were numerous reports in the Spanish media that John McAfee was found dead in his prison cell. This information has already been confirmed ( 1 , 2 ) in the Ministry of Justice of Catalonia, as well as McAfee’s lawyers.
According to media reports, McAfee committed suicide and “was found hanged in his cell.” It is also worth noting that a few hours earlier, a court approved its extraction in the United States.
Now many write that McAfee could not commit suicide. The fact is that over the years McAfee has stated that the US government wants to kill him, and more than once wrote on Twitter that if his death is presented as a suicide, this should not be believed. In 2019, he even dedicated one of his tattoos to this.
A more recent tweet, already written from prison, read: “You know, if I hang myself a la Epstein, it won’t be my fault.”