John McAfee, antivirus software pioneer, found dead

John McAfee, the founder of the McAfee antivirus software, is dead.

He reportedly died by suicide in his prison cell in Spain.

His death came hours after a Spanish court approved his extradition to the U.S. on tax evasion charges on Wednesday.

Mr McAfee apparently hanged himself, his lawyer told Reuters news agency.

The Catalan justice department said prison officers and medics had tried to resuscitate him but were not successful.

It added that “everything indicates” McAfee had taken his own life.

The 75-year-old British-American entrepreneur was arrested at Barcelona airport in October last year for allegedly failing to pay taxes on years of income.

He was alleged to have deliberately failed to file tax returns between 2014 and 2018, despite earning millions from consulting work, crypto-currencies and selling the rights to his life story.

In a tweet on June 16, he said the U.S. authorities believed he had “hidden crypto. I wish I did … My remaining assets are all seized. My friends evaporated through fear of association. I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing.”

BBC reported the U.S. justice department saying Mr McAfee evaded tax liability by having his income paid into bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchange accounts in the names of nominees.

He was also accused of concealing assets, including a yacht and real estate property, also in other people’s names.

The entrepreneur, who was born in Gloucestershire, England, first came to prominence in the 1980s when he founded his tech company and released McAfee VirusScan.

Although a pioneer of computer security, he once admitted to the BBC that he never actually used the software on his own computers – or any anti-virus software for that matter.

“I protect myself by constantly changing my IP [internet protocol] address, by not attaching my name to any device I use, and by not going on to sites where you might pick up a virus.”

In April, he tweeted:

“Which came first – The lies our government tells us, Or the lies we tell ourselves?”