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John McAfee Found Dead in Prison Cell After Spanish High Court Allows Extradition, According to Spanish Newspaper El Mundo (afr.com) 304

Posted by msmash from the breaking-news dept.
Reuters: Antivirus creator John McAfee, 75, was found dead in his prison cell in Barcelona after the Spanish high court had authorised his extradition to the US, the Catalan justice department said, confirming an earlier report from El Mundo newspaper. Everything points it could be a death by suicide, the department said in a statement. The high court had agreed to extradite him back to the US where he faces tax evasion charges. Spanish newspaper El Mundo's story. AFP has corroborated the news.
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John McAfee Found Dead in Prison Cell After Spanish High Court Allows Extradition, According to Spanish Newspaper El Mundo More

John McAfee Found Dead in Prison Cell After Spanish High Court Allows Extradition, According to Spanish Newspaper El Mundo

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  • Probably (Score:5, Funny)

    by JustOK ( 667959 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:35PM (#61513944) Journal
    Probably some sort of virus got him.
  • And given his history of crazy shit I wouldn't consider "John McAfee isn't dead!" conspiracists to be especially nutty, I'd put them maybe a rung below the "Epstein didn't kill himself" people on believability, but way above "dey dun cheated our election" nuts.

    • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mal-2 ( 675116 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:37PM (#61513964) Homepage Journal

      I'm one of those who thinks Epstein absolutely did kill himself, but that there was still a conspiracy to keep a crappy suicide watch on him so that he could.

      • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:43PM (#61513990) Homepage

        I'm one of those who thinks Epstein absolutely did kill himself, but that there was still a conspiracy to keep a crappy suicide watch on him so that he could.

        I go with Hanlon's razor on Epstein; which coincidentally gives the same result as Occam's razor. Epstein had every reason to kill himself, and when you pay minimum wage to prison guards and then understaff the positions because it's cheaper to pay overtime than to hire more, you get what you get.

        • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by ravenshrike ( 808508 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:45PM (#61514004)

          So you think the really lazy prison guards took the time to erase the security tapes? Interesting.

          • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Aqualung812 ( 959532 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:55PM (#61514046)

            So you think the really lazy prison guards took the time to erase the security tapes?

            Yes, if those security tapes showed them being really lazy.
            If they were supposed to check him every X minutes and didn't, those tapes would show it and it would mean they lose their job.

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Anonymous Coward

              So you think the really lazy prison guards took the time to erase the security tapes?

              Yes, if those security tapes showed them being really lazy.

              Lazy people do this all the time.

              They do nothing, avoid work, do nothing, avoid work.

              Then shit happens, and they have to work 5 times harder than if they had just done what they were supposed to do in the first place.

            • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Insightful)

              by cusco ( 717999 ) <brian@bixby.gmail@com> on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @04:37PM (#61514528)

              I've worked in physical security (key cards, alarms, and camera systems) for a decade and a half, and help run the 4th largest security system in the world. If the prison did even the bare minimum of configuration on their system guard staff **DO NOT** have access sufficient to delete recordings, and in actuality prison systems are almost always very tightly locked down (for obvious reasons). A prison which regularly sees high-profile prisoners? There's no fucking way in hell that the guard staff would have had that access, so your supposedly simple answer runs into a brick wall and no longer is the simplest answer. Sorry, but that's the view from inside the industry.

              • You very well may have worked in all those things, but I have done contract work for local, State, and Federal government networks and software deployments.

                Hell, I'm sure you've had your own non-contract interactions with the systems and employees of departments of the Government.

                Na, the janitor having the ability to delete that footage is entirely plausible to me.
                I've seen much worse.

            • They don't need the tapes to prove checks weren't done. Round sheets in the cell block not being signed off (forgery would typically happen at the end of the shift), length of time the body had been dead, just to name the first 2 things coming to mind.

              I'm also under the impression the guards did lose their jobs, and there was even some kind of legal penalty against the employer. (Slap on the wrist level - like any time a prison fucks up - but still.)

          • So you think the really lazy prison guards took the time to erase the security tapes? Interesting.

            Why not? Its simple self preservation. They find him dead then erase the tapes to cover their asses. Or do you really think that some elite assassin broke in and killed him and made it look like suicide? Or do you think that someone came in and just paid everyone off so they could kill him? Three men can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

            • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Insightful)

              by LenKagetsu ( 6196102 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:58PM (#61514072)

              A man can keep a secret if you show him a photo of his wife and kids.

              • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Funny)

                by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @05:27PM (#61514706)
                You haven't met my wife or kids.
              • Oh one more thing, one man can keep a secret if you threaten him. Maybe even a dozen. It's much harder when you start including dozens or hundreds. That's why voter fraud doesn't work. To do enough fraud to make a difference in an election you have to have so many people involved that the conspiracy gets found out real fast.

            • Three men can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

              That is a fun saying but it isn't true, and odd to apply in this context. Unless you believe that all of Epstein's accusers are lying and the all the organizers and customers of his operation are telling the truth, it must be that quite a few people are keeping the secret.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by cusco ( 717999 )

              Why not? Because they can't, they don't have permissions to do that. See https://news.slashdot.org/comm... [slashdot.org] above. Prison control systems are very tightly locked down, I hated working on them because they were a pain in the tail to get the correct permissions to any damn thing. Erase video of a high-profile prisoner? Not just no, but 'no way in hell' no.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            Maybe, if erasing the tapes covered up their laziness.

          • Occam's razor, if you believe it, eliminates most conspiracy theories because such theories are usually the most complex solutions. So ya, erase the tape because you goofed up and weren't on watch and were off playing poker. Easy. Don't let "but I know it was murder because it fits my preconceived notions that the ruling class wanted him out of the way" distract from the most likely cause of death which was suicide.

            Actually, the tape were not erased, they were lost by the prosecutors. So if someone beli

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by cusco ( 717999 )

              the tape were not erased, they were lost by the prosecutors

              And after the initial recordings were exported from the NVR then it somehow became impossible to export the video again? No one kept a copy of the initial export? Sorry, things don't work that way in the world of physical security, I've been doing it for 16 years.

              Pet peeve: It's not a "tape", it would be a digital recording. (OK Peeve, back in your kennel.)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cirby ( 2599 )

          Federal prison guards have a base pay of about $50,000 per year, plus benefits, plus overtime.

          You can stop trying to use that silly "minimum wage" lie.

      • Agreed, I also think he did but I don't think those who don't buy it are especially crazy conspiracy nuts.

    • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:40PM (#61513980) Journal

      He escaped with Elvis via bigfoot's help by hacking implanted 5G vaccine chips in a pizza basement.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by deKernel ( 65640 )

        For the love of Pete, everyone knows it was space aliens that took him to Alpha Centari for his yearly anal probing...sheesh.

    • > Epstein's murder is a conspiracy theory
      Hi, you appear to be glowing in the dark, do you need someone to run you over with their car?

    • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by zm ( 257549 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:49PM (#61514030) Homepage

      His tweet from October 15th 2020: https://twitter.com/officialmc... [twitter.com]

      > I am content in here. I have friends.
      > The food is good. All is well.
      > Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.

    • Re:Can't wait for conspiracy theories... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LenKagetsu ( 6196102 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:57PM (#61514070)

      Epstein killed himself via a third party.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jythie ( 914043 )
      Given how nutty the guy was, I actually would not be surprised if he bribed someone and staged things somehow... but if he did, I would also expect it to unravel within a few days. So whacky enough to think such a plan would work and pull off the initial part of it, but not think through the long term consequences and get caught soon after.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by techno-vampire ( 666512 )
      ...but way above "dey dun cheated our election" nuts.

      Which ones: the ones who think Trump was cheated in 2020 or the ones who think Hillary was robbed in 2016?
    • Well of course -- McAfee killed Epstein.

  • tax evasion charges is no joke and can be FPMITA time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      So why didn't he just avoid taxes rather than evade them or does the US arbitrarily decide avoidance is evasion if they don't like you. He surely had the perfect business for avoidance, IDK.

      • Re:tax evasion charges is no joke and can be FPMIT (Score:5, Informative)

        by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @03:59PM (#61514368) Homepage Journal

        So why didn't he just avoid taxes rather than evade them or does the US arbitrarily decide avoidance is evasion if they don't like you. He surely had the perfect business for avoidance, IDK.

        The problem is that if you are a US citizen, but live abroad, the IRS still insists you owe them taxes.

        Most (all?) other countries do not do this. For example my home country (the UK) considers you non-resident if you live outside the UK for more than 6 months in the year. This is why UK rock stars would spend 6 months on a low-tax tropical island with a studio.

        I filed tax forms with the UK for 1 year after I left, claiming to be non resident. Then they essentially said, "don't bother any more" and I was done with UK tax filing.

        The setup with the IRS's extraterritorial tax grab and the resulting unwillingness of banks to provide accounts to US citizens is the principle reason for people dropping their US citizenship.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

          The solution is indeed to renounce citizenship, even Boris Johnson had to do this.

        • I believe there is a case before the Supreme Court challenging whether it is legal to ask people to pay money to renounce their US citizenship. It used to be that you could simply walk in and renounce. Now you have to pay (and the fee keeps going up) and the process is not as straight forward as it should be. Once the IRS gets their grubby little hands on you they never let go.

          • It's not a standard fee, it depends on how much tax the irs would expect to collect if you stayed in the US for your lifetime, so, it can be a HUGE sum.
    • when people say the US dollar is just as imaginary as Bitcoin, this is the type of thing they are forgetting.

  • Money... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dark.nebulae ( 3950923 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:55PM (#61514052)

    So what, you can buy your way out of a murder charge if you kill your neighbor, but not a tax evasion charge by the IRS?

    • Don't forget that the crime they got Al Capone on was tax evasion.

    • You might even end up with Bill Cosby as your jail neighbor.
    • The U.S. is nearly unique in the world in that it taxes based on citizenship. Most countries tax based on residency - if you resided in the country for most the year, you owe income taxes there, and usually only on the income you made in that country. But if you are a U.S. citizen, you owe U.S. income taxes on all income regardless of where it was earned or where you were living. It's the main reason why wealthy people seek to get rid of their U.S. citizenship, and has caught many people unaware [bbc.com].

      McAfe

  • Epstein’d? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @02:59PM (#61514074)

    “I am content in here. I have friends.

    The food is good. All is well.

    Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.

    — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) October 15, 2020
    ”

  • he swims with the whales now
    https://twitter.com/officialmc... [twitter.com]

  • Federal charges (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @03:06PM (#61514110) Journal

    https://nypost.com/2021/06/23/... [nypost.com]

    He was also charged in a separate indictment in Manhattan federal court in March for a pump and dump scheme involving cryptocurrencies that he was touting on social media.

    In that case, McAfee and an accomplice allegedly bilked bitcoin investors out of some $13 million in two schemes, including one where they bought up large quantities of “alt-coin” then inflated the price of it by publicizing it on Twitter.

    They then sold off the cryptocurrency at the inflated price and made a $2 million profit, prosecutors said.

    How is that illegal?

  • A loss... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Craefter ( 71540 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @03:09PM (#61514126)

    The world just got a bit more boring.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by marcle ( 1575627 )

      My sentiments exactly. His classic video of "How to Uninstall McAfee Antivirus" was hilarious, and he was always good for one or another outrageous antic. He was larger than life, and it's too bad the system finally got to him.

  • Famous Last Tweets (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @03:14PM (#61514156)

    Add this one to the collection:

    Whale fucking. No joke. Each year, on Feb 1st, in the Molokai Channel,
    a few men compete in the world's only whale fucking contest. Humpback
    whales are easy to fuck- for a second or less. World record: 31 seconds.
    I competed once. Almost got my ribs crushed. Stick with Ostriches.

    Jun 24, 2018 [twitter.com]

  • Was it suicide, or was it Jeff Epstein "suicide"?

    Given McAffee's looniness, I could however see him staging it to imply "suicide" to forever validate his tinfoil hattery.

  • Back in the old days of Viruscan... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Big Nemo '60 ( 749108 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @04:30PM (#61514502) Journal

    Sad that he will be remembered as a tax evader.

    I have memories of the old days as a self-taught IT guy (fresh from college, so I was the only one in the company who was familiar with these newfangled PCs). We had an outbreak of the Stoner virus (on 5,25" floppies, no kidding!) and I persuaded my boss that we needed some kind of "protection". And it worked! From then on, for many years, we got regular updates on floppy disks - via *mail* without the "e"...

    Some times later, we got a "preview" of a new kind of bug - MS Word macro virus (almost surely "courtesy" of a customer from South America). We had no network yet, employees exchanged Word documents on 3,5" floppy disks ("sneakernet"), and the virus along with that. I kept disinfecting the PCs and the damn think kept popping up again and again. In the end I had to enforce what you would call a "lockdown" nowadays - no documents exchanged until I had disinfected all the PCs and all the floppy disks I could find.

    R.I.P. Mr. McAfee, and thanks for all.

  • Just pay your fucking taxes. (Score:3)

    by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @06:36PM (#61514956)
    How much money would he have still had if he just paid his taxes?

  • Julian Assange next? (Score:3)

    by Maelwryth ( 982896 ) on Thursday June 24, 2021 @02:44AM (#61515788) Homepage Journal
    It can't be to long until Julian Assange is in the same type of headline. Almost everybody seems to have forgotten that he is still in prison. His supporters have been targeted and divided into toxic groups with people siphoning of their money for their own ends and he has been muzzled for years.

    But that seems to be the way it happens now. The US is viewed as so corrupt that people will go above and beyond to try not to get sent there. And then, if that fails, they kill themselves.

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