John McAfee is Dead – The Rise and Fall of the Antivirus King
His mysterious death in a prison has renewed interest in his often controversial life
John McAfee was once a worldwide sensation. He created a revolutionary antivirus software in the late 1980s and sold his company for USD 100 (About AUD 132) million. He lived a lavish lifestyle for nearly two decades after that. Things started to turn in 2012 when his mansion was raised by Belize police by saying that they suspected he was running a meth lab. However, no drugs were found at his premises. They confiscated both John McAfee’s passport and licensed weapons, shot his dog, and briefly imprisoned him before the charges were dropped. When the authorities arrived, they found McAfee in bed with a underaged girl.
Seven months later, John McAfee became a person of interest in the death of an American ex-pat and his neighbour, Gregory Faull, who had allegedly poisoned McAfee’s nine dogs. Faull’s housekeeper found him dead shot in the head. McAfee went on the run afraid of being “silenced” if has was imprisoned. He conducted interviews while living as a fugitive until he was apprehended and arrested in Guatemala in December and was deported to Miami.
In 2016, John McAfee came to the limelight again as he ran as a Presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party. That attempt failed spectacularly. In 2017, he became the CEO and Chairman of MGT Capital Investments. He moved the business into mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He left the company in 2018. MGT stated that they were being pressured by investors to disassociate themselves from McAfee.
In 2020, he was arrested in Spain after the US Department of Justice requested his arrest for tax evasion in Tennessee. John McAfee waas accused of failing to file tax returns for four years, despite earning millions from cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements, and selling his life rights and was also accused of concealing assets in others’ names. In March of the same year, he was indicted on additional charges of fraud and money laundering, alleging that he and a business partner swindled investors of over $13 million by falsely promoting crypto. The pressure to deport John McAfee increased with time.
The Spanish court ruled that extradition must go forward. “The social, economic or any other relevance the defense claims the appellant possesses does not grant him any immunity,” the ruling stated . The court also noted that there was “no revealing data or indication that Mr. McAfee could be subjected to any political persecution.”
John McAfee found dead in Spain
On June 23, 2021, John McAfee was found dead in Barcelona prison in Brians 2 Penitentiary Centre. This unfortunate incident happened a few hours after the Spanish National Court ordered John McAfee’s extradition. Just minutes before his death, John McAfee posted a mysterious image of Q to his Instagram, which some people are speculating a reference to Qanon.
The Catalan Justice Department mentioned that “everything indicates” that John McAfee took his own life. His death will surely spark a wave of conspiracy theories, but will surely be less important compared to the mystery of his life. The life story of John McAfee was really one-of-a-kind, he dealt with demons while having near-infinite resources. So, yes, it is time to pay our respects to the antivirus king whose life was full of ups and downs most people cannot even imagine.
In other news, China has banned Bitcoin, and the prices of Bitcoin have taken quite a fall.
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