John McAfee dead (of apparent suicide) at 75 in Spain

[UsandThem]

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/joh...eveloper-found-dead-spanish/story?id=78449557

Shine on you crazy diamond.

This guy had it all, and went way off the rails at some point. I still remember the craziness of his escape from Belize, and the eventual $25 million dollar judgement against him for wrongful death lawsuit.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/07/9208...vading-taxes-while-allegedly-earning-millions

Then, last year, a U.S. District Court ordered McAfee to pay $25 million in a wrongful death lawsuit in Faull's death, according to the Florida Record.

McAfee said he would not pay and he was "never suspected of murder" in a statement he posted to Twitter in March 2019.

"I have not responded to a single one of my 37 lawsuits for the past 11 years. They have all been frivolous," he wrote, calling the order "the legal extortion game aimed at America's wealthy class."

He claimed to have "no assets" and said he couldn't pay, even if a lawsuit demanded it.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Eccentric for sure. He had pretty interesting twitter feed as well. One even might even have foretold his future...

John McAfee referenced Jeffrey Epstein in suicide tweet last year

Software tycoon John McAfee, who died from an apparent suicide in a Spanish jail cell Wednesday, sent a cryptic tweet last year that if he was found hanged behind bars like Jeffrey Epstein, “…

nypost.com

McAfee tweeted the government was subtlety sending messages they were going to get rid of him. He even got a tattoo that would claim otherwise in the future.

Definitely a dark sense of humor.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Whoever got Epstein got John!

No way this dude was suicidal!

 

[Muse]

I'm curious about this guy. Figured by now this thread would be a couple pages or something, but this is post #4. Hmm.

Saw stories on NBC news tonight, i.e. OTA network TV. One was by a reporter who interviewed him in 2013, Raj Mathai of NBC News San Francisco.

Of course, the parallel with Epstein is obvious. Spanish jail. No word on how he died other than the claim it was suicide. The story is that a Spanish court had determined to extradite him to the USA to stand trial for tax evasion, maybe other crime(s?). On the face of it suicide seems conceivable. If he said he'd never kill himself that's no proof he didn't. I have NEVER believed that Epstein killed himself.

It's said he was famously infatuated by firearms. He admits to bizarre life style, but I don't know what that entailed. I suppose women involved. But I have heard nothing to paint him like Epstein, a sexual predator.

 

[Artorias]

I'm curious about this guy. Figured by now this thread would be a couple pages or something, but this is post #4. Hmm.

Saw stories on NBC news tonight, i.e. OTA network TV. One was by a reporter who interviewed him in 2013, Raj Mathai of NBC News San Francisco.

Of course, the parallel with Epstein is obvious. Spanish jail. No word on how he died other than the claim it was suicide. The story is that a Spanish court had determined to extradite him to the USA to stand trial for tax evasion, maybe other crime(s?). On the face of it suicide seems conceivable. If he said he'd never kill himself that's no proof he didn't. I have NEVER believed that Epstein killed himself.

It's said he was famously infatuated by firearms. He admits to bizarre life style, but I don't know what that entailed. I suppose women involved. But I have heard nothing to paint him like Epstein, a sexual predator.

There is also a thread in P&N.

 

[VirtualLarry]

He was a big believer in Bitcoin, and attended many of their conferences, cruises, etc., and espoused the "all taxation is theft" line.

Still, I don't believe that he killed himself either. The worst that they would send someone like him to prison for in the USA for tax evasion, would be a minimal stint in Club Fed, with the other white-collar bank fraudsters and the like.

It doesn't pass the "sniff test".

 

[UsandThem]

He was a big believer in Bitcoin, and attended many of their conferences, cruises, etc., and espoused the "all taxation is theft" line.

Still, I don't believe that he killed himself either. The worst that they would send someone like him to prison for in the USA for tax evasion, would be a minimal stint in Club Fed, with the other white-collar bank fraudsters and the like.

It doesn't pass the "sniff test".

He was 75, and was facing 30+ years in a federal prison.

For a free-spirited eccentric guy like he was (along with the discussion over the years about his apparent mental health state), I wouldn't be surprised in the least that he decided to go out on his own terms (which seems like that's how he lived his life since selling McAfee Antivirus off).

 

[Muse]

There is also a thread in P&N.

Yeah, I figured and went looking for one and found it, just posted there too...

 

[Kaido]

A good visual history of his life:

Inside the wild life of the late former fugitive and eccentric cybersecurity legend John McAfee, who claimed to have 47 children and a yacht from the Wolf of Wall Street

John McAfee's genius led him down some dark roads before his death. Here's the story of how he went from renowned security CEO to eccentric fugitive.

www.businessinsider.com

One estimate is that his fortune went from $100 million to $4 million in the 2008 economic collapse, which seems to be around the time he got paranoid & thought he was being watched. Things kinda went downhill from there...

 

[dank69]

Thanks for the worst AV software ever.

 

[ultimatebob]

Interesting guy. He never "paid up" on his bet when Bitcoin didn't hit a million dollars by the end of 2020, though!

 

[Muse]

Thanks for the worst AV software ever.

I used to have to uncheck the box that would install McAfee every time I updated some program. Forget what it was? Java?

 

[Muse]

One estimate is that his fortune went from $100 million to $4 million in the 2008 economic collapse, which seems to be around the time he got paranoid & thought he was being watched. Things kinda went downhill from there...

Pretty hard to lose 96% of his capital in 2008 unless he was super leveraged. I think he probably spent a great deal of that.

 

[dank69]

I used to have to uncheck the box that would install McAfee every time I updated some program. Forget what it was? Java?

I think I had that problem with Acrobat for a while. Every damn time.

 

[Kaido]

Pretty hard to lose 96% of his capital in 2008 unless he was super leveraged. I think he probably spent a great deal of that.

Weapon purchases, international traveling, etc. probably drains your pocketbook pretty quickly!

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Posted this on the P&N equivalent thread but seems more relevant here.....

Perhaps it was really just an accident and he was trying to accomplish something and it snapped his neck or something?

In July 2017, McAfee wrote on Twitter that he predicted that the price of one bitcoin would jump to $500,000 within three years, and that "If not, I will eat my own dick on national television."[69]

John McAfee - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ponyo]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1316801215083225096

 

[Captante]

I can recall the crazy stories about this guy from years ago.... sorry to hear of this and I too have serious questions about his "suicide". (RIP no matter how he passed)

I must agree however that McAfee security software WAS straight garbage.

 

[repoman0]

sorry to hear of this and I too have serious questions about his "suicide". (RIP no matter how he passed)

Why is anyone sorry to hear about this? Dude is a murderer and rapist and general abject piece of shit. If hell was real he’d be burning there now. Good riddance.

 

[Captante]

Why is anyone sorry to hear about this? Dude is a murderer and rapist and general abject piece of shit. If hell was real he’d be burning there now. Good riddance.

Not implying he didn't belong in prison or that he was a "good guy".... wishing a dead person peace is as much/more for the benefit of the person doing the wishing as IME the dead folks tend to not care much. (of course I can only speak for myself)

And I DID make fun of his crappy software!

One thing I CAN say for certain however is that we'll never know what the guy was actually guilty of without first-hand knowledge of the case.

 

[KMFJD]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1408007770759217156

lol shit disturber to the end

 

[Red Squirrel]

RIP crazy dude.

One thing about him, he was honest. Even he admitted that McAfee antivirus is a piece of garbage. More or less in those words too lol. He did an AMA on Reddit years back.

 

[KMFJD]

Let's just remember the good times John's brought us

nsfw/nsfl themes in the video

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Apparently he was broke!

Once worth $100M, John McAfee WAS broke when he died, friend says

Soon before his death on June 23, McAfee claimed in a tweet that he had no hidden cash and was worth 'nothing' -- though tax evasion charges gave him ample reason to conceal any assets.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[UsandThem]

Apparently he was broke!

Once worth $100M, John McAfee WAS broke when he died, friend says

Soon before his death on June 23, McAfee claimed in a tweet that he had no hidden cash and was worth 'nothing' -- though tax evasion charges gave him ample reason to conceal any assets.

www.dailymail.co.uk

In addition to the feds, the question of McAfee's estate is also of interest to his family, including his widow and staunch supporter Janice, who insists that his death may not have been a suicide, as Spanish authorities found.

Of course she wants to find out if he has hidden money somewhere.

And I guess just like Jeffrey Epstein, we'll have to deal with "McAfee didn't kill himself" memes since his widow will likely fuel that fire.