Spain probes antivirus founder McAfee’s death in jail

MADRID: Spanish investigators Thursday probed the death of John McAfee who was found in his prison cell after an apparent suicide following a court decision approving his extradition to the US on tax evasion charges. The body of the 75-year-old founder of the anti-virus McAfee software was discovered at around 7pm on Wednesday in his cell in the Brians 2 penitentiary near Barcelona in what a prison service spokeswoman said was a death "apparently from suicide". Catalan legal officials confirmed it was McAfee, who had been held at the facility since his arrest in early October as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul. His body was taken away by judicial officials who opened an investigation to determine the cause of death, a spokeswoman for Catalonia's justice ministry told AFP on Thursday. According to an indictment filed in a US court, McAfee was alleged to have deliberately failed to file tax returns between 2014 and 2018, despite earning millions from consulting work, cryptocurrencies and selling the rights to his life story. "Guards and medical staff intervened immediately to perform resuscitation measures but doctors eventually certified his death," the Catalan justice department said in a statement.