John McAfee dead latest – ‘Epstein-like conspiracy theories’ surge as software guru’s autopsy may take ‘days or weeks’

MCAFEE SAID CHARGES WERE 'POLITICALLY MOTIVATED'

In a hearing held via videolink earlier this month, McAfee argued the charges against him were politically motivated and said he would spend the rest of his life in prison if he was returned to the US.

The Tennessee indictment said McAfee failed to file tax returns from 2014 to 2018, despite receiving "considerable income" from several sources.

According to a June 15 indictment,  allegedly earned millions from speaking engagements, consulting, promoting cryptocurrencies and selling the rights to his life story for a documentary.

The indictment did not allege that the tech boss received any income in relation with McAfee Associates.

MCAFEE'S TWEET SAYING 'I WAS WHACKD' RESURFACES

Following his reported death, an old  of McAfee's resurfaced alleging " I was whackd. Check my right arm."

The tweet included a photograph of himself with a tattoo that said $WHACKD and the caption read: "Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: 'We're coming for you McAfee! We're going to kill yourself'. I got a tattoo today just in case."

McAfee had reportedly been dragged from his cell after apparently hanging himself — with a justice department official insisting: "Everything points to suicide".

SISTER OF MURDERED JOHN FAULL SAYS 'THREAT IS OVER'

Greg Faull, 52, was murdered at his Belize home in 2012 after complaining about McAfee's dogs. Police then described McAfee as a "person of interest."

Now Faull's sister Cindy Friedemann has spoken out about McAfee's death, saying her family are "comforted" the "threat is over."

She said: "Our family has been haunted for years by the knowledge of the torture that Greg suffered in the last hours of his life.

"Although we will never recover from our loss, we are now comforted that the continuing threat to our family has come to an end.” 

WHAT CHARGES WAS MCAFEE FACING?

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.

McAfee's lawyer said that the legal team had been preparing with him an appeal to avoid being extradited.

WHAT DID AUTHORITIES SAY ABOUT MCAFEE'S DEATH?

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.

Although McAfee’s Spanish lawyer, Javier 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?"

WHAT DID MCAFEE SAY ABOUT JEFFREY EPSTEIN?

McAfee wasn't convinced that Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in jail two years before he committed his own apparent suicide in a Spain prison cell.

“The man was six-foot-one, he hung himself from a bed that was only five-foot-seven in a manner that managed to break his neck in multiple places similar to someone being physically strangled," he said after Epstein's 2019 death.

“You add all that stuff up, and I don’t see how a suicide is possible.”

SPAIN RULED TO EXTRADITE MCAFEE

Spain’s National Court on Monday ruled that McAfee should be extradited to the US to face charges for evading more than $4million in the fiscal years 2016 to 2018.

The judge dropped seven of the 10 counts in the initial indictment.

A penitentiary source told 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 US warrant, but that at the moment of his death he had been alone.

MCAFEE INDICTED FOR TAX EVASION

McAfee was arrested again on October 3 of last year at El Prat airport in , as he was about to flee the country to .

It was then that  with evading taxes after failing to report income made from promoting  while he engaged in consulting work, booked speaking engagements and sold the rights to his life story for a documentary.

The Tennessee indictment accused McAfee of failing to pay taxes between 2014 to 2018 "despite receiving considerable income from these sources."

MCAFEE'S LAWYER SAID 'NOBODY EXPECTED' HIS DEATH

McAfee's lawyer Javier Villalba said “nobody expected” his client’s death.

He said it “did not come in the heat of the moment” as McAfee learned of the extradition ruling the day before he was found dead.

He said McAfee had been preparing a case to try to block his return.

The Spanish authorities have ordered an autopsy.

MCAFEE'S WIFE THOUGHT HE WOULD DIE IN PRISON

In 2021, John McAfee's wife had warned that authorities were "determined" he would die in prison in a chilling Father's Day message just days before his reported suicide in a Spanish prison.

, a former prostitute,  that he was "loved and appreciated" as she claimed that his "honesty got him in trouble with corrupt governments" in a Twitter post on June 20.

"I know John is an extremely polarizing individual. Believe me, I know this better than most!" Janice wrote in the lengthy note.

His wife added that he was struggling "both mentally and physically, as well as financially" after eight months in prison.

WHAT DID MCAFEE SAY ABOUT BITCOIN?

In November 2017, McAfee wrote: “When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017.

“BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions. I now predict Bircoin [sic] at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my d*** if wrong.”

But then seeming to go back on his word in 2020 he then wrote: "Eat my d*** in 12 months? A ruse to onboard new users. It worked.

"Bitcoin was first. It's an ancient technology. All know it.

"Newer blockchains have privacy, smart contracts, distributed apps and more. Bitcoin is our future?

"Was the Model T the future of the automobile?"

MCAFEE LIVED IN 'GHOST HOTEL' IN SPAIN

It's believed that McAfee was was reportedly holed up in a mysterious "ghost hotel" at a Spanish resort that he turned into a secret cryptocurrency farm. 

Internet sleuhs examined his Instagram and tweets and worked out his location.

Thanks to a group of computer nerds turned detective, it appeared turned out that McAfee had shacked up in a closed-down Hotel Daurada Park which is an old rickety roadside building in Cambrils, in the north eastern Spanish region of Catalonia. 

Spanish newspaper  reported at the time of McAfee’s arrest in October that he had been living there since at least March 2020.

WHO WAS MCAFEE'S WIFE?

McAfee's wife, , a former prostitute, met after cartel bosses used her to spy on him, McAfee claimed in an interview with The Sun after his arrest.

Janice  that he was "loved and appreciated" as she claimed that his "honesty got him in trouble with corrupt governments" in a Twitter post on June 20.

"I know John is an extremely polarizing individual. Believe me, I know this better than most!" Janice wrote in the lengthy note.

His wife added that he was struggling "both mentally and physically, as well as financially"; after eight months in prison.

MCAFEE EXPLAINED WHY HE WOULD NOT PAY TAXES

McAfee had told news agency Reuters that he did not pay income tax for eight years for ideological reasons.

The tech guru was on the run from US tax authorities, who had indicted him for tax evasion.

His Twitter account warned during his detention in Puerto Plata: "If John misses his next check-in, events will be set into motion that I cannot prevent once they have begun.

"John has secreted data with individuals across the world.

"I know neither their identities or locations. They will release their payloads if John goes missing."

MCAFEE EXPRESSED BELIEF IN CONSPIRACIES ON TWITTER

McAfee, who had a record of making mischievous and false statements on social media, appeared to suggest his life was in danger.

He also claimed he had set up a “deadman switch” to spill untold dirt on unnamed people if he were to die or disappear mysteriously.

In an initial cryptic tweet, he wrote: “People ask why I do the things I do.

“An act by itself is incomplete. It's the reason for the act that completes it and provides the real information. I am [on] the run.

“I would be an idiot to explain my 'why's'.”

QANON THEORISTS IMMEDIATELY DEVELOP MCAFEE THEORY

McAfee's latest Instagram post was shared without a caption and showed a  on top of a white background, the Independent reported.

The letter "Q" represents a disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory, known as QANON, about pedophiles running a worldwide child sex-trafficking ring.

Instagram users responded to the post by commenting: "RIP," "this man did not kill himself," "Q," and "Epstein 2.0".

MCAFEE'S LAWYER SAYS 'NOBODY EXPECTED' HIS SUICIDE

McAfee’s Spanish lawyer, Javier Villalba, said the entrepreneur’s death had come as a surprise to his wife and other relatives, adding he would seek to get “to the bottom” of his client’s death.

"This has been like pouring cold water on the family and on his defense team," Villalba told  on Thursday. "Nobody expected it, he had not said goodbye."

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.

FAMILY OF MCAFEE QUESTIONS SUICIDE

 questioned his death by suicide as they referenced his own previous claims of "authorities trying to shut him up."

Shelley Uden said on Thursday she was "very sad" to hear of her cousin's death, adding "if he did take his own life, we may never know why.”

Shelley, 70, who lives with husband John in Gwent, Wales, told The Sun that she ";heard about his death in prison on the main news last night."

"It came as quite a shock," she said.

“He was a very colorful character. I lost contact with him years ago and while I never saw him I heard about him on the news.”

MCAFEE SAID 12 ATTEMPTS MADE ON HIS LIFE

McAfee told a Gizmodo journalist of about 12 suspected attempts on his life - a paranoia possibly fuelled his erratic drug-taking.

Finally, after a neighbor he argued with was found dead in a pool of his own blood with a gunshot wound to his head, McAfee fled the country.

He went on the run in 2012 from Belize after cops announced he was a "person of interest" after the death of his neighbor Gregory Faull.

He sought asylum in Guatemala City - but authorities deported him back to America.

MCAFEE LIVED OPULENT LIFESTYLE WITH COMPUTER CASH

The millions McAfee made from the sale of his stake in McAfee Associates, a revolutionary computer antivirus company, allowed him to enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle.

The money funded an opulent playboy existence which included buying homes in Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

It also helped him indulge his hobby of aerotrekking - flying unlicensed microlight aircraft at low altitude and breakneck speeds.

Having gained a harem of female followers at a sex yoga ashram he established, according to Vice, McAfee then used fake social media accounts to try to boost the sport's popularity.

MCAFEE SUSPECTED OF BOATING WITH WEAPONS STOCKPILE

In July of 2019, McAfee was released from detention in the Dominican Republic after he and five others were suspected of traveling on a yacht carrying high-caliber weapons, ammunition and military-style gear.

Days later he claimed to have sought refuge in London and Paris.

McAfee tweeted a picture claiming that he and his wife, Janice McAfee were sitting in a London restaurant.

He then wrote: "On the move again. The long arm of the U.S. is reaching for us here in London.

"Thank God it's a weekend. Government bureaucracy paperwork is stalled until tomorrow morning.

"We are never stalled. Will update you soon."

BELIZEAN PRIME MINISTER CALLS MCAFEE 'BONKERS'

In 2012, McAfee was sought for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor in Belize, but was never charged with a crime.

He later claimed he had been forced to flee because Belize authorities were trying to kill him.

Then-Prime Minister Dean Barrow expressed doubts about McAfee's mental state, saying: "I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers."

MCAFEE AND BODYGUARD CHARGED TOGETHER

McAfee and his bodyguard Jimmy Gale Watson Jr were charged for a scheme to exploit offerings and digital tokens that they later sold once prices rose on the promotions, according to the US Department of Justice and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

But a week before his death, McAfee tweeted that he no digital currency assets squirrelled away.

He said: "The US believes I have hidden crypto. 

"I wish I did but it has dissolved through the many hands of Team McAfee (your belief is not required), and my remaining assets are all seized. 

"My friends evaporated through fear of association. I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing."

MCAFEE'S INSTAGRAM DELETED AFTER POSTING 'Q'

 ahead of his extradition to the , and 30 minutes after news of his death broke,  .

However, less than 24 hours after his death,   page appeared to be deleted.

It is unclear whether the page was removed by an individual in charge of the account, or by Instagram itself.

The Sun has reached out to Instagram, but they did not immediately respond to comment.

WHY WAS MCAFEE IN PRISON?

, 75, was in prison after getting arrested on October 3, 2020, at El Prat airport in Spain, as he was about to flee the country to Turkey.

That same month, McAfee was charged in Tennessee with evading taxes after failing to report income made from promoting cryptocurrencies while he did consulting work, made speaking engagements, and sold the rights to his life story for a documentary.

He was a wanted man in the US for tax-related criminal charges, which carry a prison sentence of up to 30 years.