Barcelona, Spain:
Renowned Anti-Virus software pioneer, wanted by the United States for tax evasion, was found dead in his jail cell in Spain on Wednesday, as per a prison official.
Spain's National Court had already granted his extradition to the United States. The Catalan provincial government acknowledged in a statement that the 75-year-old US citizen was discovered dead in his jail cell. According to an anonymous government insider, the comment alluded to McAfee.
A spokesperson for the prison administration in northeastern Catalonia confirmed media reports that the 75-year-old was discovered dead in his cell at the Brians 2 jail near Barcelona, "apparently from suicide." She didn't go into any additional detail.
McAfee had been imprisoned for over nine months and might have challenged the Spanish court's extradition decision. According to his lawyer, the software tycoon could not stand any more time in prison.
McAfee was charged with tax evasion and wilfully neglecting to submit tax returns to disclose tax returns between 2014 to 2018 from marketing cryptocurrencies, speaking engagements, and selling the documentary rights to his life story by US federal prosecutors in Tennessee. In addition, he was accused of a second cryptocurrency fraud case in New York.
McAfee has been imprisoned in Spain since he was nabbed at Barcelona airport in October 2020, just as he was about to leave for Istanbul.
If convicted in the United States, McAfee could have faced up to 30 years in prison.
Earlier on Wednesday, Spain's National Court confirmed it had granted his extradition to the United States.
The judgment may still be challenged, and the extradition would have required permission from the Spanish cabinet as well.
During a court hearing last week in Madrid, he contended that the tax fraud charges filed against him were related to his unsuccessful US presidential bid as a Libertarian Party candidate in 2020 - his second failed quest for the White House.
"I believe the charges are politically motivated," he had then stated.
"In late 2018, I announced I would run again and I also announced I would target the IRS [US Internal Revenue Service] and its corruption and two months later the IRS filed charged against me," he told Spain's High Court during the first hearing of his extradition trial.
McAfee made more than 10 million euros ($12 million) in the four years in question, according to the US extradition request submitted in November and cited in the judgment, but never filed a tax return.
"To conceal his income and assets from the Internal Revenue Service... the defendant ordered part of his income to be paid to straw men and placed property in their names," it said.
McAfee, who made a fortune with his name-brand antivirus software in the 1980s and has one million followers on Twitter, has turned himself into a self-proclaimed crypto-currency expert, claiming to make $2,000 each day.
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