The 75-year-old founder of antivirus software company McAfee Corp's body was found Wednesday at a facility near Barcelona, hours after a Spanish court ordered his extradition in connection with a federal criminal proceeding in Tennessee.
He had been detained in Spain since October in connection with criminal charges filed by the Justice Department’s tax division.
“Everything indicates that it could be a death by suicide,”
a spokeswoman for the Justice Department of the Catalan regional government
told The Wall Street Journal Thursday.
The spokeswoman said that a local judicial delegation is
investigating the cause and circumstances of Mr. McAfee’s death and took his
body away from the jail to carry out an autopsy.
Mr. McAfee’s body was found in his cell at around 7 p.m.
local time. Security personnel tried to resuscitate him, but the jail’s medical
team later declared him dead, the spokeswoman said.
Mr. McAfee shared the cell with another man, but he was alone
when he was found, she said. The spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment further.
“John was and will always be remembered as a fighter,” said
Nishay K. Sanan, an attorney representing Mr. McAfee in U.S. criminal
proceedings. “He tried to love this country but the U.S. Government made his
existence impossible.”
Last year, Mr. McAfee had filed a request to Spanish
judicial authorities to be freed while waiting for a decision on his
extradition to the U.S.
However, in December, a court rejected his request, saying
he was a flight risk and that remaining in the jail near Barcelona didn’t pose
a risk to his health.
Mr. McAfee founded the company that still bears his name in
1987, but he sold his stake in the 1990s for more than $100 million.
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