Law firm confirms death of controversial technology figure
The team at Gordon Law Group has confirmed the death of its client John McAfee, founder of McAfee anti-virus software.
According to the law firm McAfee was found dead in his Spanish prison cell shortly after the Spanish court approved his extradition to the United States. Rumors of suicide are reported, though they have yet to be confirmed.
“Working closely with John for the past three months, I found him to be a gracious person who was eager to help those around him in any way possible,” said Andrew Gordon, the lead attorney for McAfee’s US defence team. “The news of his death came as a horrible surprise considering that John was intent on sharing the truth of his story. John always maintained his innocence and we looked forward to fighting for his justice before the courts.”
McAfee was a controversial figure in the IT industry. He resigned from the anti-virus software company in 1994 and went on to find other tech companies including, Tribal Voice – developer of messaging programs PowWow. In 2000, he invested in and joined the board of directors of Zone Labs, makers of firewall software, prior to its acquisition by Check Point Software in 2003.
In May 2016, McAfee was appointed chief executive chairman and CEO of MGT Capital Investments, a technology holding company. The company initially stated that it would rename itself John McAfee Global Technologies; however he stepped down from the company in 2017. A year later he took a position as CEO with Luxcore, a cryptocurrency company focused on enterprise solutions.
But controversy followed the former CEO, in March this year he retained Gordon Law Group, a tax law firm with extensive experience in cryptocurrency law in the defense of his criminal indictments by the Department of Justice in Tennessee and New York.
According to the law firm McAfee strongly maintained his innocence, and are prepared to fight the tax charges against him.
At the time the law firm stated that it was “one of the first criminal tax evasion cases in the United States involving cryptocurrency, and certainly one of the most high-profile cases of this nature”.
McAfee’s charges include alleged tax evasion, failure to file tax returns, and securities fraud related to virtual currencies. The law firm noted that cryptocurrency regulation is a developing area for the IRS and Department of Justice, and this case marks a turning point in the enforcement of cryptocurrency reporting.
This wasn’t the first time McAfee had a run in with the law. According to the New York Times, McAfee disappeared from his home in Belize after the local police sought him for questioning over the death of his neighbour.
“He resurfaced in Guatemala City a few weeks later, then largely dropped out of the public eye for years — until 2016, when he tried to run as a Libertarian candidate for president of the United States,” wrote the NYT.
