Antivirus developer John McAfee was found dead in his cell in a Spanish jail on Wednesday from what authorities are calling an apparent suicide, according to The Wall Street Journal.
McAfee, 75, was the founder of McAfee Antivirus and considered a pioneer in the software industry, but was facing security fraud charges and extradition to the U.S. at the time of his death.
McAfee was arrested in Spain for tax evasion last year, and a Spanish court had just ruled in favor of his extradition to the U.S., according to the Associated Press. Hours later, he was found dead in his cell.
Between November 2017 and February 2018, McAfee made $23 million recommending several “initial coin offerings” to his Twitter followers, leveraging his fame as a computer programmer for credibility, federal prosecutors said, ABC News reported.
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While this usually would not be an issue, McAfee was being paid to promote the investments and did not disclose that information before doing so, which is unlawful.
This led federal prosecutors in New York to charge him with securities fraud.
McAfee was known for living a lavish life with nine homes filled with expensive art, including a dinosaur skull, a fleet of planes, and antique cars. However, he was forced to liquidate his assets during the Great Recession.
McAfee started his antivirus software firm in the 1980s and sold it in the mid-90s. McAfee said that he wrote the antivirus program “in a day and a half” and that 4 million people were using it within a month, according to an ABC News interview from 2017.
McAfee once ran to become the Libertarian Party candidate for president in 2016 and a “person of interest” in a Belize Murder case. When he was going to be deported to Belize, he claimed he faked a heart attack and was never arrested or connected with the death.
He is survived by his wife, Janice McAfee, who tweeted a happy Father’s Day tweet to McAfee, which ended up being his last tweet.