ANTIVIRUS COMPUTER software mogul John McAfee has reportedly been found dead in a prison cell in Spain with reports suggesting he committed suicide.
The 75-year-old is said to have been found unresponsive at Brians 2 Prison in Barcelona.
Though medical staff attempted to revive him, he is said to have been pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.
According to El Pais, Spanish justice department officials have told them “everything points to suicide” while a report in El Mundo draws the same conclusion.
A police investigation into his death is ongoing.
McAfee made his fortune as the creator of the widely used antivirus software bearing his name, however recent years he had experienced several major brushes with the law.
He was being held in a Spanish prison ahead of his likely extradition to the US on tax evasion charges.
McAfee was facing a 10-count indictment in the Western District of Tennessee over allegedly evading paying tax on millions of dollars earned through speaking engagements and other consultancy work.
Just hours prior to his death a Spanish High Court had agreed to extradite McAfee to the US.
Federal investigators believe McAfee avoided paying taxes on any income for a total of four years running from 2014 to 2018.
He was facing up to 30 years in prison over these charges alone.
Earlier this year, McAfee was also hit with a separate charge in Manhattan federal court over an alleged cryptocurrency scheme he promoted on social media.
Along with an accomplice, he stood accused of defrauding bitcoin investors out of about $13million in two separate schemes.
In one of these cases, McAfee is alleged to have purchases significant amounts of “alt-coin” before tweeting about the purchase to push the price up.
He then sold off his stake, earning an estimate $2 million as a result.
Back in June, McAfee rebuffed any notion of wrongdoing, describing the federal tax evasion charges as politically motivated.
In January 2019, he hit the headlines after fleeing his home in Tennessee with his wife, aboard a so-called “Freedom Boat”.
He headed off to the Caribbean in an attempt to avoid paying $25 million in a wrongful death lawsuit judgement.
The judgement related to the death of his American neighbour, Gregory Viant, in Belize.
Though McAfee was never charged with the murder he was on the run at the time of his arrest in Spain.
