25-06-2021, 09:14 AM
John McAfee's Spanish lawyer, Javier Villalba, said that the antivirus software mogul did not say "goodbye" to his family before his death, the Associated Press reported.
© Adalberto Roque/Getty Images US millionaire John McAfee gestures during an interview with AFP on his yacht anchored at the Marina Hemingway in Havana, on June 26, 2019. - After making his fortune with antivirus software, McAfee fled from Belize after a murder case.
"This has been like pouring cold water on the family and on his defense team. Nobody expected it. He had not said goodbye," Villalba told the AP.
McAfee's death came as a surprise to his wife and other relatives, according to Villalba. The lawyer, who has called the death a suicide, said he would get "to the bottom" of what happened.
Authorities in Spain say that a judge has ordered an autopsy on the remains of McAfee, the gun-loving antivirus pioneer, cryptocurrency promoter and occasional politician who died in his cell pending extradition to the United States for allegedly evading millions in unpaid taxes.
Antivirus Creator John McAfee Found Dead In Spanish Prison
[/url]A court spokeswoman for the Catalonia region said Thursday that a forensic team would need to perform toxicology tests on McAfee's body to determine the cause of death and that results could take "days or weeks."
Authorities have said that everything at the scene indicated that the 75-year-old tycoon killed himself.
The judicial investigation is being handled by a court in Martorell, a town northwest of Barcelona with jurisdiction over the prison where McAfee died. The spokeswoman wasn't authorized to be identified by name in media reports.
Video: John McAfee dies by suicide in Spanish prison (Reuters)
John McAfee dies by suicide in Spanish prison
[url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/hoover-dams-lake-mead-at-historic-low-water-level/vi-AALmJPa]Although Villalba said that he had no evidence of any foul play, he blamed the death on "the cruelty of the system" for keeping a 75-year-old behind bars for economic and not blood-related crimes after judges refused to release him on bail.
"We had managed to nullify seven of the 10 counts he was accused of and even so he was still that dangerous person who could be fleeing Spain if he was released?" the lawyer said. "He was a world eminence, where could he hide?"
Spain's National Court on Monday ruled that McAfee should be extradited to the U.S. to face charges for evading more than $4 million in the fiscal years 2016 to 2018. The judge dropped seven of the 10 counts in the initial indictment.
Villalba said that McAfee had learned about the ruling shortly after on Monday and that his death on Wednesday didn't come in the heat of the moment. He also said that the legal team had been preparing with him an appeal to avoid being extradited.
A penitentiary source told the AP that McAfee was sharing a cell in the Brians 2 jail where he had been put in preventive detention since he was arrested in October last year on a U.S. warrant, but that at the moment of his death he had been alone.
Prosecutors in Tennessee accused McAfee of failing to report income from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consulting work, earnings made in speaking engagements and for selling the rights to his life story for a documentary. The criminal charges carried a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
The British-born entrepreneur led an eccentric life after selling his stake in the antivirus software company named after him in the early 1990s. He twice made long-shot runs for the U.S. presidency.
McAfee often professed his love for drugs and guns in public remarks. And some of his actions landed him in legal trouble beyond Tennessee, from Central America to the Caribbean. In 2012, he was sought for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor in Belize but was never charged with a crime.
"This has been like pouring cold water on the family and on his defense team. Nobody expected it. He had not said goodbye," Villalba told the AP.
McAfee's death came as a surprise to his wife and other relatives, according to Villalba. The lawyer, who has called the death a suicide, said he would get "to the bottom" of what happened.
Authorities in Spain say that a judge has ordered an autopsy on the remains of McAfee, the gun-loving antivirus pioneer, cryptocurrency promoter and occasional politician who died in his cell pending extradition to the United States for allegedly evading millions in unpaid taxes.
Antivirus Creator John McAfee Found Dead In Spanish Prison
[/url]A court spokeswoman for the Catalonia region said Thursday that a forensic team would need to perform toxicology tests on McAfee's body to determine the cause of death and that results could take "days or weeks."
Authorities have said that everything at the scene indicated that the 75-year-old tycoon killed himself.
The judicial investigation is being handled by a court in Martorell, a town northwest of Barcelona with jurisdiction over the prison where McAfee died. The spokeswoman wasn't authorized to be identified by name in media reports.
Video: John McAfee dies by suicide in Spanish prison (Reuters)
John McAfee dies by suicide in Spanish prison
[url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/hoover-dams-lake-mead-at-historic-low-water-level/vi-AALmJPa]Although Villalba said that he had no evidence of any foul play, he blamed the death on "the cruelty of the system" for keeping a 75-year-old behind bars for economic and not blood-related crimes after judges refused to release him on bail.
"We had managed to nullify seven of the 10 counts he was accused of and even so he was still that dangerous person who could be fleeing Spain if he was released?" the lawyer said. "He was a world eminence, where could he hide?"
Spain's National Court on Monday ruled that McAfee should be extradited to the U.S. to face charges for evading more than $4 million in the fiscal years 2016 to 2018. The judge dropped seven of the 10 counts in the initial indictment.
Villalba said that McAfee had learned about the ruling shortly after on Monday and that his death on Wednesday didn't come in the heat of the moment. He also said that the legal team had been preparing with him an appeal to avoid being extradited.
A penitentiary source told the AP that McAfee was sharing a cell in the Brians 2 jail where he had been put in preventive detention since he was arrested in October last year on a U.S. warrant, but that at the moment of his death he had been alone.
Prosecutors in Tennessee accused McAfee of failing to report income from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consulting work, earnings made in speaking engagements and for selling the rights to his life story for a documentary. The criminal charges carried a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
The British-born entrepreneur led an eccentric life after selling his stake in the antivirus software company named after him in the early 1990s. He twice made long-shot runs for the U.S. presidency.
McAfee often professed his love for drugs and guns in public remarks. And some of his actions landed him in legal trouble beyond Tennessee, from Central America to the Caribbean. In 2012, he was sought for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor in Belize but was never charged with a crime.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass