John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail cell
He offered to help Cuba avoid a US trade embargo using cryptocurrency and sought to run for US president for the Libertarian Party.
McAfee, who said in 2018 that he had fathered at least 47 children, lived in Belize for several years.
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He met his wife, Janice McAfee, when she solicited him as a prostitute while he was on the run, he said.
He fled after police sought him for questioning in the 2012 murder of a neighbour. He had a million followers on Twitter.
McAfee had been in jail in Spain since October 6 when he was accused of tax evasion and failure to disclose income charges at Barcelona airport. He had faced charges that he hid significant assets on his tax returns for a number of years, which included real estate and a yacht.
The businessman’s defence had argued that the extradition request was politically motivated and therefore wasn’t appropriate.
He disagreed with the current monetary system, which has made him “public enemy No. 1,” according to court documents released on Wednesday.
McAfee linked the charges filed by the US tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service, to his failed bid to run as a Libertarian Party candidate in the 2020 US presidential election, a second such attempt.
The Spanish prosecutor, Carlos Bautista, however, said McAfee was a tax dodger and dismissed the accusation of a political motivation, insisting the Libertarian Party rarely gains more than 1 per cent of votes in US elections.
The US calculated that McAfee owed more than $US4.2 million ($5.5 million) in taxes for the 2014 to 2018, the documents show.
Wife Janice McAfee said in a post on Twitter on Sunday, Father’s Day, “Now the US authorities are determined to have John die in prison to make an example of him for speaking out against the corruption within their government agencies… There is no hope of him ever having a fair trial in America.”
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Bloomberg, Reuters
