John McAfee, Antivirus Software Creator, Found Dead in Spanish Prison

Security personnel at the Brians 2 penitentiary near the northeastern Spanish city tried to revive John McAfee, but the jail's medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan government said.

Updated: June 24, 2021 8:15 AM IST

By India.com News Desk | Edited by Shubhangi Gupta

John McAfee, Antivirus Software Creator, Found Dead in Spanish Prison
John McAfee, Antivirus Software Creator, Found Dead in Spanish Prison

Madrid: Prominent tech figure John McAfee, the creator of the leading antivirus software McAfee, was found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona. Reports said he hanged himself in his cell shortly after a Spanish court issued a preliminary ruling in favor of his extradition to the United States to face tax-related criminal charges.

Security personnel at the Brians 2 penitentiary near the northeastern Spanish city tried to revive him, but the jail’s medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan government said.

The statement didn’t identify McAfee by name but said he was a 75-year-old U.S. citizen awaiting extradition to his country. However, a Catalan government source familiar with the event who was not authorised to be named in media reports confirmed to the AP on Wednesday that the dead man was McAfee.

Who Was John McAfee?

  • A computer programmer and businessman, he founded the software company McAfee Associates in 1987 and ran it until 1994, when he resigned.
  • He then founded Tribal Voice (makers of the PowWow chat programme), QuorumEx and Future Tense Central, among other companies, and has been involved in leadership positions at several other firms.
  • His personal and business interests included smartphone apps, cryptocurrency, yoga, and herbal antibiotics. He lived for several years in Belize but returned to the US in 2013.
  • In 2019, a court ordered McAfee to pay $25 million for allegedly ordering the killing of his neighbour in Belize in 2012, a charge that he denied and refused to pay.
  • On October 6, 2020, McAfee was arrested in Spain over tax evasion charges.
  • The charges were announced shortly after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that it had brought civil charges against McAfee and that he could face 30 years in prison if convicted.

(With agency inputs)

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