John McAfee died in a Barcelona prison on his 75th birthday Catalan police believe his death was caused by suicide. McAfee was awaiting extradition to the US, where he was facing a long prison sentence for tax evasion and financial irregularities in cryptocurrency trading
McAfee was born on a US base in the United Kingdom but spent most of his childhood in Virginia. He developed a passion for programming in his childhood, first at Xerox and then at Lockheed Martin where he encountered the first computer viruses and developed software to combat them.
In the late 80s McAfee set up his own anti-virus software firm. He managed to enter the IT market just at the time when the US dot-com boom was just beginning. During the years of selling his software, McAfee made a fortune of $100 million.
During the Obama era, McAfee went headlong into politics. He criticised the rise of intelligence agencies and the practices of mass surveillance of the world that Snowden uncovered. And in 2016, McAfee ran in the US Libertarian Party presidential primary.
His candidacy proved too eccentric for libertarians and he failed to win that primary, although he came second with 8% of the vote. McAfee was by then living outside the US, sailing his yacht between the Caribbean islands.
This yacht he called “the ship of liberty”. And for good reason: In his home country in America, McAfee was under investigation by the FBI and IRS for tax evasion. A little later, an investigation into his cryptocurrency transactions was added. McAfee acted as Ilon Musk in 2017, trying to manipulate the crypto-asset market with his tweets.
He sought political asylum in Cuba for a long time without success. He was then arrested and deported to Spain. Here, McAfee faced deportation back home to the US and the prospect of up to 20 years in prison, which at his age meant life in prison.
In a tweet, McAfee said he was definitely not planning to commit suicide. And if that were to happen, it should also be seen as Epstein’s death – under mysterious circumstances. However, whatever the reason for his death, one thing can be said: McAfee embodied the image of a spontaneous libertarian who defied the American state, which did not forgive him.
Malek Dudakov