Controversial businessman John McAfee dead in Spanish prison

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 favour of the 75-year-old tycoon's 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 him, but the jail's medical team finally certified his death, a statement from the regional Catalan government said.

The statement didn't identify McAfee by name, but said he was a 75-year-old US citizen awaiting extradition to his country. A Catalan government source familiar with the event who was not authorised to be named in media reports confirmed to the AP that the dead man was McAfee.

Spain's National Court on Monday ruled in favour of extraditing McAfee, who had argued in a hearing earlier this month that the charges against him were politically motivated and that he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he was returned to the US.

The US believes I have hidden crypto. 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.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) June 16, 2021

The court's ruling was made public on Wednesday and could be appealed. Any final extradition order would also need to get approval from the Spanish Cabinet.

Tennessee prosecutors charged McAfee with evading taxes after failing to report income made from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consultancy work, as well as income from speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary. The criminal charges carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

The entrepreneur was arrested last October at Barcelona's international airport. A judge ordered at that time that McAfee should be held in jail while awaiting the outcome of a hearing on extradition.

- Associated Press