Antivirus creator John McAfee found dead due to alleged suicide

10 July 2021: John McAfee, whose history of legal troubles spanned from Tennessee to Central America to the Caribbean was discovered dead at the Brians 2 penitentiary in northeastern Spain.

John McAfee, the creator of McAfee antivirus software, was found dead in his jail cell near Barcelona in an apparent suicide, hours after a Spanish court approved his extradition to the United States to face tax charges punishable by decades in prison, authorities said. Security personnel tried to revive him, but the jail’s medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan government said.

McAfee was arrested last October at Barcelona’s international airport and had been in jail since then awaiting the outcome of extradition proceedings. The arrest followed charges the same month in Tennessee for evading taxes after failing to report income from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consulting work, made speaking engagements and sold the rights to his life story for a documentary. The criminal charges carried a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

Born in England’s Gloucestershire in 1945 as John David McAfee, he started McAfee Associates in 1987 and led an eccentric life after selling his stake in the antivirus software company named after him in the early 1990s. McAfee twice made long-shot runs for the US. He dabbled in yoga, ultralight aircraft and producing herbal medications. California chipmaker Intel, which bought McAfee’s company in 2011 for $7.68 billion.