John McAfee, 75, was found dead in his cell at Brians 2 prison in Barcelona, where he was being held for tax evasion. Although his name is known around the world for being the creator of a computer antivirus, his life was not only related to the cybersecurity environment, it also touched other areas, from cryptocurrencies to drugs.
McAfee was born in the United Kingdom on September 18, 1945. From an early age, his life had turbulent moments, such as his father’s suicide at the age of 15, a fact that, according to an interview with, he remembered every time he woke up.
In 1967 he graduated from Roanoke College, where he studied mathematics, then worked at a punch card encoding company, which also taught him the basics of computer science. Later, he got a job with the Missouri Pacific Railroad, where he helped implement an IBM computer system, the purpose of which was to calibrate train times.
At that stage he began his foray into the world of hard drugs, according to the American magazine. In the 70s he moved to Silicon Valley, where he worked in various technology companies, while maintaining his lifestyle, which had a hiatus in 1983, the year in which he decided to seek help to quit addictions. “My life was a complete hell,” he commented in an interview for Wired.
In 1986, after the arrival of the first computer virus on personal computers, John decided to start a company that would counter these threats and a few years later, McAfee Associates had a turnover of $ 5 million a year, partly thanks to the Michelangelo virus, which emerged in 1992 and that affected 5 million computers, according to company estimates.
By 1996, the businessman decided to sell his shares within McAfee for about $ 100 million. From then on, his profile in the business world became more reserved. However, the 2008 crisis had a negative impact on his fortune, which went from $ 100 million to $ 4 million.
After that failure, John David McAfee moved to Belize, where he founded the Quorumex company, whose purpose was to find a plant-based product to fight diseases, but the business did not go well.
While his company’s failure hadn’t brought him media attention, in 2012 he returned to the public eye after Belizean authorities began investigating him after his neighbor turned up dead. He fled the country before being questioned, but ended up arrested in Guatemala, charged with illegal entry into the country.
Later, he was extradited to the United States, where he was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, in addition to carrying firearms. For 2015, he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. He founded his own party, “The Cyber Party”, but did not receive support at the National Convention of the Libertarian Party.
During that same year he had a brief return to the world of technology, when he was appointed CEO of MGT Technologies, a mysterious company that invested in mobile phone games, cybersecurity and a drug manufacturer.
Since 2011 he repeated that he felt insecure, in addition to the fact that there was a plot on the part of his government against him. For 2019, his presence on Twitter generated a stir, since he even published that he had fled from the CIA, in addition to showing photographs where he posed with firearms, something that had already become a common issue on the businessman’s social networks. .
In that same year, he was arrested in the Dominican Republic after the embarkation of his ship, where weapons, ammunition and cash were found. Upon his release, his lawyer stated that no active cases or extradition requests had been established.
McAfee was arrested on October 3, 2020 by the National Police at the El Prat airport, Barcelona. Investigations by US authorities indicate that he evaded millions of dollars by promoting cryptocurrencies and selling the rights to his biography between 2014 and 2018.
According to a civil indictment brought against McAfee by the United States Securities Commission, he had obtained more than $ 23.1 million in undeclared income from false and misleading cryptocurrency recommendations.
In this way, the Spanish court authorized his extradition to the United States to face the charges related to his 2016, 2017 and 2018 tax returns, as requested by the prosecution.
In his latest post on Twitter, McAfee wrote: “The United States believes that I have hidden (earnings from) cryptocurrencies. I would like to have them, but it has all been dissolved through the many hands of the McAfee team and my remaining assets are all confiscated (…) I have nothing. However, I don’t regret anything ”.
Anticipated suicide and QAnon? John McAfee’s mysterious posts on Twitter and Instagram
Behind McAffe’s death, questions have also been raised, as he even made a mention of suicide on Twitter since 2019: “Receiving subtle messages from US officials saying: ‘Come on for you, McAfee! I got a tattoo today, for if anything. If I commit suicide, I didn’t. They beat me. “
Even McAfee users began reproducing the JohnMcAfeeDidntKillHimself hashtag after news of his death broke.
On the other hand, an image of the letter Q was published on his Instagram profile, which seemed to be a reference to the far-right conspiracy theory, whose foundations are based on the false idea that former President Donald Trump was facing to a group of pedophiles from the Democratic Party.
After that publication, the social network deleted the profile and said that it was investigating the fact. However, doubts arose as to who was managing the businessman’s account.
