John McAfee, the antivirus software package entrepreneur who faced extradition from Spain to the U.S. on tax-associated prison rates, was identified lifeless, according to regional reviews.

According to the Spanish outlet El Mundo, attempts were being designed to resuscitate McAfee, who was arrested at an airport in Barcelona previous October.

A govt official instructed The Linked Press McAfee experienced been found useless inside of his cell. Authorities claimed the bring about of loss of life was becoming investigated. 

Earlier in the day, Spain’s National Court docket authorized the extradition of McAfee to the U.S., where by he was desired on tax-associated felony prices that have a prison sentence of up to 30 decades.

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Tennessee prosecutors charged 75-calendar year-previous McAfee with evading taxes soon after failing to report cash flow created from endorsing cryptocurrencies when he did consultancy perform, as well as income from talking engagements and promoting the rights to his daily life story for a documentary.

The expenses refer to the three fiscal years from 2016 to 2018, according to the Spanish court’s ruling on Wednesday.

McAfee’s attorney Andrew Gordon confirmed Spanish authorities had notified him McAfee experienced handed away, he explained in a statement to United states These days.

“We have no comment on the induce of demise,” Gordon said. “We were being actively operating on Mr. McAfee’s situation and have been getting ready to struggle for his innocence right before the United States courts. John was eager to share his facet of the story.”

McAfee, a former programmer at NASA in the late 1960s, built his name and fortune by making a cybersecurity empire at then-McAfee Associates only to resign in 1994. In 2010, tech large Intel acquired McAfee in a offer truly worth $7.68 billion.

But McAfee’s fortune dwindled from a reported peak of $100 million to $4 million, because of the world-wide monetary crisis and economic downturn, The New York Situations described.

By early 2010, McAfee was in the antibiotics business in Belize with a undertaking referred to as QuorumEx. But in later yrs, his renegade daily life rose to the forefront.

In 2012, he was named by Belize authorities as a “‘person of curiosity” in the murder of his neighbor. Showtime aired the documentary “Gringo: The Harmful Lifestyle of John McAfee” in 2016 about his time in the Central American place.

A description of the documentary describes how McAfee “goes off the grid to stay in Belize, constructing a compound and harem, starting to be a drug lord and acquiring an armed safety force to guard himself versus the police right until he is a suspect in his neighbor’s murder and must make a terrific escape.”

McAfee stored a cache of 10 guns with him in 2013 when McAfee invited a United states These days reporter to meet him wherever he was hiding out at a farmhouse in Tennessee’s Blue Ridge Mountains. A $2 million contract on his life had dropped to $650,000, he stated.

To escape a Belize prison, he instructed how he “lied, faked a coronary heart assault, set on disguises (as a design worker) — to get property.”

A further film about McAfee’s lifestyle, “King of the Jungle,” had been in the functions with Zac Efron reportedly starring, in accordance to The Hollywood Reporter.

Through a 2015 interview with United states of america Today, McAfee reported he experienced used a great deal of the past calendar year escaping assassins he claimed ended up despatched from Belize. He had because been dwelling with his wife, Janice, in Lexington, Tennessee.

“This is a new period in my everyday living – getting again to developing items,” McAfee claimed.

Jon Swartz, Mike Snider and The Related Press contributed to this report.

If you or a person you know could be battling with suicidal ideas, you can get in touch with the U.S. National Suicide Avoidance Lifeline at 800-273-Communicate (8255) any time working day or evening, or chat on the web.

Crisis Textual content Line also supplies absolutely free, 24/7, private assist through textual content concept to persons in crisis when they dial 741741.

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