Software pioneer turn fugitive, John McAfee, 75, has been found dead in his prison cell near Barcelona on Wednesday June 23.
With his software being installed in about 500 million computers worldwide, John, who first came under the spotlight in the late 80s for introducing his currently-acclaimed antivirus technology, had less to do with the company in his name, and more in dealing with crypto-currency.
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Following the Spanish Court’s approval of McAfee’s deportation to the US for tax charges punishable by law, his death came in subsequently after a few hours, prison authorities had mentioned.
McAfee, besides actively living a life of hedonism, had publicly been a tax opponent with a wide-spanned history of legal battles stretching from Tennessee to the Caribbean. Though not charged, he was also questioned for being involved in the murder of his neighbor, Gregory Viant Faull, in Belize in 2012.
McAfee was arrested on October 2020 in Spain under accusations of failure in filing four years worth of four years, despite a multi-millionaire.
Along with that, he had also been accused of concealing assists, like a yacht and real estate property.
The criminal charges he was under carried a prison sentence worth 30 years.
Following his charges and imprisonment, McAfee was found dead at the Brians 2 penitentiary in northeastern Spain, which was certifies by the Catalan government via a statement which read that, ‘Everything points to death by suicide.’
Prior to his death, McAfee had argued Spain’s National Court’s decision in extraditing him to the US in a hearing, that the charges brought against him made him a political pawn of the prosecutor’s in Tennessee, and that he would be spending his entire life in prison if returned to the US.
In 2019, the pioneer talked about his distaste for taxation in a tweet that said, ‘taxation is illegal.’ In the same year he was detained shortly in the Dominican Republic under allegations of bringing weapons in the country.
During a conversation with Steve Morgan, founder of market research firm Cybersecurity Ventures and contracted writer of McAfee’s biography, in 2016, he mentioned memories of his father who ‘beat him mercilessly’ not once showing him an ‘ounce of affection’ before ultimately killing himself with McAfee’s shotgun, when John was 15.’
In the years leading to his death he was ultimately labeled as a troubled soul or a ‘peculiar man’ as stated by Vesselin Bontchev, a Bulgarian computer scientist and an early antivirus researcher.
However, with the world knowing him best as a software and security pioneer, Morgan has stated that ‘that’s how ultimately he really most likes to be remembered.’
“He was a true pioneer, not just as a security technologist but as one of the first companies to distribute software over the internet,” Morgan added.
Chicago based defense attorney, Nishay Sanan fighting McAfee’s case said that McAfee ‘will always be remembered as a fighter.’
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