- The death of John McAfee in a Spanish jail yesterday is likely to have been a suicide
- McAfee was adamant he wouldn’t get a fair trial in the U.S. and had probably planned this end as soon as he was arrested
- Conspiracy theories have linked his case to that of Jeffery Epstein, but this is very different
The shock death yesterday of John McAfee, just hours after his extradition to the U.S. from Spain on tax charges, was likely a suicide according to initial reports. McAfee was found dead in his Spanish jail cell six hours after the Spanish High Court granted the extradition, but suggestions that the U.S. government was behind the death are far fetched in the least. Given his dislike of the U.S. authorities, and his paranoia over how they would treat him once they finally got their hands on him, it stands to reason that McAfee would not want to give them the chance and would prefer to take his own way out.
Nothing Certain in Life but Taxes and Death
McAfee was indicted by U.S. federal prosecutors in October last year over charges that he evaded taxes and intentionally failed to file returns, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had also charged him with failing to declare that $23.1 million in undisclosed income came from false and misleading cryptocurrency recommendations.
Following his arrest in October and a delay to his extradition hearing this month, confirmation of the extradition came yesterday after the Spanish High Court granted his removal from Spain to the U.S. to face the charges related to his tax returns for 2016, 2017 and 2018 as the prosecution had requested. The thought of returning to the U.S. to face these charges was apparently too much for McAfee, and just six hours later the world learned that he had apparently killed himself, despite the fact that he still had the right to appeal to extradition.
McAfee Wasn’t Killed by the U.S. Government
Conspiracy theories naturally arose quickly, not least because McAfee’s final Twitter post was a retweet from his wife Janice which included the following:
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.
The same post also referred to him having “no hope of a fair trial in America”, all of which makes suicide far more likely than any kind of government hit job. The case has been compared to that of Jeffrey Epstein, but this is a completely different kettle of fish; McAfee lived in a world of drug-fueled paranoia, he had nothing on anybody in power and they, in turn, had no reason to get rid of him.
John McAfee lived a hundred lifetimes in one and, purely from the point of spectacle, he will be sorely missed.
