John McAfee death - latest news: Tech mogul found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition
Mr McAfee was found dead in his prison cell in Barcelona, Spain
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Your support makes all the difference.The anti-virus pioneer John McAfee was found dead on Wednesday in his Barcelona prison cell, where he had been awaiting trial for tax evasion.
Just before his death, Spain’s high court had authorized his extradition to the United States. According to local reports, Mr McAfee had said in court only a week ago that if he was extradited, he feared he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
“If I am extradited, it is almost certain that I will spend the rest of my life in prison because the United States wants to use me as an example,” he said, according to the Spanish news outlet Europa Press.
Spanish authorities have said his death was likely a suicide.
Nishay Sanan, the Chicago-based defence attorney representing McAfee, said they had not been formally informed of the cause of death and the legal team was asking Spanish authorities to confirm whether the prison had video cameras on his cell.
McAfee appears to have been increasingly fearful he would be “whacked” by unnamed government officials; warning in 2019 that US officials said they were “coming for” him. He posted a photo with a “$WHACKD” tattoo he says he got following the “subtle messages”, saying “If I suicide myself, I didn’t. I was whackd”.
In 2020, he told followers that if he died in prison, it would not be by suicide, saying “know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine”.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warned that WikiLeaks’s Australian born founder, Julian Assange, could be next to kill himself as defendants would rather die than be subject to an unfair system of extradition for non-violent crimes.
- John McAfee’s last prison interview speaking exclusively to The Independent
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- ‘I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison’: John McAfee said he feared extradition to US days before death
- John McAfee’s Instagram posts ‘Q’ image minutes after his death is reported
Spanish authorities say McAfee’s death was likely a suicide
John McAfee, the programmer behind some of the world’s most famous anti-virus software, was found dead on Wednesday in his Barcelona prison cell. The 75-year-old tech mogul had been facing tax evasion charges, and Spain’s high court had just authorized his extradition to the United States. Catalan’s justice department had said his death was likely a suicide.
‘I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison’: John McAfee said he feared extradition to US days before death
Antivirus creator John McAfee said he feared spending the rest of his life in prison just days before he was found dead, according to reports.
A week ago, McAfee testified to a Spanish court on 15 June as part of his fight against extradition to the United States on tax charges carrying a prison sentence of 30 years, according to The Associated Press.
“If I am extradited, it is almost certain that I will spend the rest of my life in prison because the United States wants to use me as an example,” he said, according to the Spanish news outlet Europa Press.
Read more here.
Prison employees tried to save McAfee’s life, reports say
Employees at the Brians 2 penitentiary where John McAfee was held tried to revive the 75-year-old but were unsuccessful, according to a statement cited by Spanish newspaper El Mundo and reporting by the Associated Press.
According to the newspaper El Pais, the software entrepreneur was arrested in October and was awaiting extradition to the US when he was found dead.
The paper added that police are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.
Read more here.
Mysterious ‘Q’ posted on McAfee’s Instagram after his death
An Instagram account belonging to cybersecurity entrepreneur John McAfee posted a plain image of the letter “Q,” an apparent reference to the “QAnon” conspiracy theory, on Wednesday minutes after it was reported by multiple news organizations that Mr McAfee had been found dead by suicide in his Spanish prison cell.
The post, which depicts a black, capital-letter “Q” on a white background, went up less than a half hour after English-language news services began reporting Mr McAfee’s death.
Read more here.
‘I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing’: McAfee posted eerie tweet before his death
A week before his death, John McAfee posted an eerie tweet in which he claimed to “regret nothing.”
“The US believes I have hidden crypto,” Mr McAfee tweeted on 16 June. “I wish I did but it has dissolved through the many hands of Team McAfee (your belief is not required), and my remaining assets are all seized. My friends evaporated through fear of association. I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing.”
McAfee said he would never hang himself in creepy 2020 tweet
In an eerie tweet last year, John McAfee told his followers that if he died in prison, it would not be by suicide.
“I am content in here,” the tech mogul wrote on 15 October, not long after he was incarcerated. “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.”
McAfee was accused of paying no taxes for four years, court documents show
Court documents show that John McAfee was accused of never filing taxes from 2014 to 2018.
During that four-year period, prosecutors said the tech mogul earned millions of dollars from consulting, giving speeches, promoting cryptocurrencies, and selling his life story for a movie.
Read the full indictment here.
‘Wake up people’ John McAfee warns of corrupting influence of power in last video message
Following the anti-virus creator’s death, the social media posts of John McAfee have taken on new intrigue as the self-described target of political persecution warned he would not “Epstein” himself before he died of an apparent suicide.
Shortly after his death, a “Q” appeared on his Instagram.
Following his appearance in a Spanish court to fight extradition to the US, McAfee posted his last video message warning about the corrupting influence of power, saying “wake up people, be very cautious who you give power to”.
“It is that negative, unsocial not life-supporting part of the human-animal that needs power. Nothing else needs power. And so we give people power over others through government, through military, and we expect them not to be corrupt,” he said.
McAfee said in 2019 he got a tattoo after receiving threats officials would ‘kill himeself’
John McAfee appears to have been increasingly fearful he would be “whacked” by unnamed government officials; warning in 2019 that US officals said they were “coming for” him.
In this tweet from November 2009, McAfee shows a photo of a “$WHACKD” tattoo he says he got following the “subtle messages”.
“I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn't. I was whackd. Check my right arm,” he said.
‘The deep state is real’ Kim Dotcom suggests McAfee ‘tax charges’ came after pair discussed creating anti-surveillance phone
Kim Dotcom, a fellow tech entrepreneur and target of the US government facing a long prison sentence, suggested tax charges against John McAfee came soon after the pair discussed creating an anti-surveillance phone that would “piss the mass spying US govt off”.
It would have had an air-gapped camera and microphone with an open-source operating system a secure crypto wallet.
“Shortly after he was arrested on ‘tax charges’,” Dotcom said. I always thought he partied too hard, should have avoided the drugs and focus on using his brilliant mind for good. When he had a sober mind it was all about freedom.”
In another tweet to a McAfee video about the deep state, Dotcom said the deep state is real and is run by corporate interests that control spy agencies, politicians, judges, fake news media, big tech and people in power.
“Extradition is now a tool of oppression. It gives US Empire global jurisdiction to throw ppl in jail just by charging them,” he added.
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