John McAfee, the tech innovator whose name is synonymous with antivirus software, died by suicide on Wednesday hours after a court approved his extradition from Spain to face U.S. tax evasion charges, officials said.
The Antivirus software creator was wanted in the U.S. on tax-related criminal charges that carried a prison sentence of up to 30 years
McAfee was found dead in his cell in Barcelona, following the Spanish High Court’s preliminary ruling for his removal to the United States. Security personnel tried to revive him, but the jail’s medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan Government said.
“A judicial delegation has arrived to investigate the causes of death,” it said, adding that “everything points to death by suicide.”
Spain’s National Court on Monday ruled in favor of extraditing McAfee, 75, who had argued in a hearing earlier this month that the charges against him by prosecutors in Tennessee were politically motivated and that he would spend the rest of his life in prison if returned to the U.S.
The court’s ruling was made public on Wednesday and was open for appeal, with any final extradition order also needing to get approval from the Spanish Cabinet.
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.
