As news reports reported that Spain’s National Court had approved the extradition of antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee to the United States, where he is wanted on tax-related criminal charges that carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years, Spanish newspaper accounts indicated that McAfee had been found dead in his prison cell of an apparent suicide:
MADRID (AP) — John McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus software, has been found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona, a government official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Hours earlier, a Spanish court issued a preliminary ruling in favor of his extradition to the United States to face tax-related criminal charges.
Security personnel at the Brians 2 penitentiary near the northeastern Spanish city tried to revive McAfee, who was 75, but the jail’s medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan government said.
The statement didn’t identify the U.S. tycoon by name, but said he was a 75-year-old U.S. citizen awaiting extradition to the country. A Catalan government source familiar with the event who was not authorized to be named in media reports confirmed to the AP that the dead man was McAfee.
We are awaiting more information from official sources.