The late tech tycoon and crypto advocate John McAfee died broke while awaiting extradition to the US on tax evasion charges in a Spanish prison last June, according to Scottish author Mark Eglinton. McAffee had spent his fortune on lavish mansions, says the writer who collaborated with the controversial antivirus pioneer on a book.
Eglinton, who worked with McAfee on the forthcoming book, No Domain: The John McAfee Tapes, for six months while the businessman was fleeing the authorities, claims that the businessman was unable to pay him an advance fee for the collaboration.
“I don’t doubt that if he could have helped he would have,” the author told The Daily Mail. “He said, ‘I can’t do it, my financial situation is worse than yours.'”
According to the writer, McAfee lost his fortune due to a string of unsuccessful investments in real estate scattered around the world.
“He had his money in very safe investments, but he built houses, absolutely bizarre properties,” Eglinton said. “Some of them, he never slept a night in the property.”
At various points during his life, the entrepreneur owned various mansions and compounds in Texas, Colorado, Hawaii, and Tennessee in the US, as well as Belize, among others.
The author claims McAfee confined in him: “The USD 100 million I got out of McAfee [Antivirus business], that goes very quickly.”
The entrepreneur sold his final stake in the business in 1994.
According to Eglinton, the businessman sold some of those properties at a major loss as real estate prices dropped in the 2007-2009 subprime mortgage crisis.
Meanwhile, speaking of the book that is scheduled to be published in December, Eglinton said that what “will surprise people about this book is the deep philosophy of John McAfee”.
As reported, on June 23, McAfee was found dead in a Barcelona prison following the Spanish high court’s decision to extradite the British-born US entrepreneur and crypto advocate to the US. Spanish authorities say that everything at the scene indicated the businessman killed himself.
Hinting at his alleged financial situation, one week before his death, McAfee tweeted that while the US authorities believed he had hidden crypto, he wished he 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.”
____
Learn more:
– This Is How John McAfee Made USD 23m For Shilling ICOs (According to SEC)
– McAfee In ‘Hilton’ With ‘Murderers’
– S2F Bitcoin Price Model Gets ‘Red Dot,’ McAfee Bashes His USD 1M ‘Nonsense’
– McAfee Breaks Up With Bitcoin; Calls His USD 1M per BTC Bet a ‘Ruse’
– What USD 1 million per Bitcoin? John McAfee Now Talks of USD 2 million
– McAfee Magic Crypto Trading Platform is Live
– “SEC Won’t Let Me Shill ICOs,” Cries McAfee
– John McAfee Charges USD 105,000 for Promotional ICO Tweet
Credit: Source link