John McAfee, computer antivirus pioneer, Libertarian presidential candidate, and past guest of Liberty Nation’s Uprising podcast, was found dead in his cell in a Spanish prison Wednesday, June 23. Early reports suggest suicide.
Last year, prosecutors in Tennessee charged McAfee with tax evasion after failing to report income made by promoting cryptocurrencies and from speaking engagements and selling the rights to his life story from 2016 through 2018. Spanish authorities arrested McAfee at Barcelona’s international airport in October 2020, and a judge ordered him held in jail pending an extradition hearing.
McAfee explained during a video hearing earlier that he believed the charges were politically motivated, as he had announced in 2018 that he would run for president in 2020 and, if successful, target the IRS.
“I am hoping the Spanish court will see the injustice of this,” he said, adding that the U.S. just wanted to “make an example” of him. As it turned out, the Spanish court did not see the injustice of it; the extradition request was approved. Hours later, the 75-year-old was found dead. Had he made it back to the U.S. for prosecution, he could have been sentenced to as many as 30 years in federal prison.
This is a breaking story; stay tuned to Liberty Nation for updates as new information becomes available.
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