WEBVTT - McAfee Part 6: The Demise 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:05.480 It's January twenty nineteen and John McAfee is at sea. 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:10.280 He's fleeing the United States after hearing that he was 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:15.000 being investigated for tax evasion. He's with his partner Janus, 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:20.040 their dogs, and security guards, sailing his boat from Miami 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:25.480 to the Caribbean. The photojournalist Robert King is there too, 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:29.960 filming the whole thing. Through the course of the journey, 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.960 McAfee is seen drinking and smoking, and there are shots 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:39.080 of ziploc bags with what looked like synthetic drugs. For King, 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:44.720 documenting McAfee's travels was an exhausting assignment because there was 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.120 a lot of you know, mind altering substances and alcohol, 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.320 and we were sleeping with guns, and you know, it 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:57.200 was nuts. McAfee, though, seems oddly at ease when he's 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:01.040 talking to King. Remember they go back to his days 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:06.479 in Belize when King was filming there for Vice. As 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:10.840 they make for the Dominican Republic, McAfee tells King, this 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.280 is the most important video he's ever made. I will 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:19.440 fabricate whatever reality I see fifth to keep eyeballs on us. Robert, 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.000 are we clearly do you have a problem with that. 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.120 I'm near the album. This is a clip from the 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.120 Netflix film Running with the Devil, The Wild World of 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:33.440 John McAfee. You can hear McAfee start to come upon. 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:38.319 If this one does not sell your fucking footage, nothing will, Robert, 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.119 nothing will. Do you understand I have created this story? 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:48.040 Do you understand? I have fabricated a perception that is 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:55.560 matchment reality, ran jury's indictments, foreign countries, guns, that Uni video. 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:58.559 So you tell me that this is not gold. It 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.360 is gold. I really take in this golf and like 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:08.160 fives check artis have woven it into the most magnificent 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:13.519 jewels you must see. So it's hard to say what 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.000 was real and what was theater? I mean, because he 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.160 was he wasn't he he did Shakespeare plays. I mean 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:26.080 he was extremely intelligent, well read. But I think a 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:30.400 lot of that is psychosis too. When they dock in 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.280 the Dominican Republic, everyone winds up in jail because their 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.880 boat is loaded with cash, actual bricks of gold, drugs, 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:44.240 and guns. McAfee did not want to get sent back 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:48.560 to the US and face the American justice system. They 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:53.560 all get deported. King is sent back to Tennessee. McAfee, 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.600 who was born in England uses his UK passport to 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:02.359 get him and janis transported to Europe. He will never 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:10.080 set foot in America again. You're listening to Foundering. I'm 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:16.920 your host, Jamie Tara Bay. In the final episode of 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:21.240 this season, we retrace the last days of John McAfee. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.480 He's speaking at tech conferences and getting deeper and deeper 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.799 into the dark side of crypto, all the while he's 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:34.400 staggering across Europe. He's terrified of spending the rest of 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:38.520 his life in an American prison, and yet he cannot 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.840 resist the spotlight. He baits authorities with teasing tweets that 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:48.480 hide his location but show a continued, reckless defiance. He's 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:54.320 in his seventies, his paranoia is surging, his associates are fleeing, 0:03:55.200 --> 0:04:14.720 and he's left isolated, increasingly erratic and desperate. Success in 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:19.600 business brings a sort of currency, not just money. People 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.920 like McAfee, who started his own company, became a household name, 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:28.320 and helped create an industry. There's a cultural currency that 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.719 comes with that too, a cybersecurity legend. John McAfee pioneered 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.520 the anti virus industry full stop. John was a super 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.800 genius man. He really does me yeah, our introduction, mister 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:49.520 John Jobs Gates Bazos. We practically worship these figures. For 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.040 a fleeting period in the late nineteen eighties and nineties, 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.840 McAfee belonged to this club. He understood the power of 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.920 this currency, and he used it to an extreme that 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:06.359 none of his peers did. He weaponized it the money 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.840 and celebrity he accrued the enablers he surrounded himself with. 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.479 McAfee often used these to benefit himself and to do 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:21.159 harm up until the very end, and in those final days, 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.840 there was very little left of the life McAfee once lived, 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:31.560 except for one thing, his daughter Jen. McAfee had Jen 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.480 with his first wife, Fran. We heard from Fran at 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.120 the beginning of this season. She was the eighteen year 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:43.880 old student in the math class McAfee was teaching in Louisiana. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.440 It was like living on the largest roller coaster in 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:53.279 the world. So she had these tremendous highs, but then 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:58.719 you bottom down and that was life. McAfee had a 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:03.440 tumultuous relationship ship with his daughter too. Jen has rarely 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.960 spoken in public, preferring to keep as much of her 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:11.760 life private as possible. She declined to be interviewed, but 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.360 her lawyer spoke on her behalf. Jen's had a lifetime 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:20.280 to watch her father put his foibles and idiosyncrasies on 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.120 display for the world to see, but they had moments 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.240 of intense love where he exhibited his devotion to her. 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.200 One example we found in our reporting is that during 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.159 Jen's teenage meltdowns at home with her mother, she would 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.320 ask for her dad. McAfee would fly often across the 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.719 country within twenty four hours to be with her. There 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:52.120 were other moments too. Here's Jen's lawyer, Joy Athanasiu. Jen 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.920 and Joy have been friends since childhood. We had gone 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.919 a visit and she was pregnant. His home in Woodland, 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:05.480 her Colorado was very mountainous, with some cabins throughout the property, 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.360 but it was a considerable hike to get to these cabins, 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.280 and there was a point where she needed to slow 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:16.040 down because, if I remember correctly, she was quite pregnant 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:20.160 at that point. And he was really really attentive to 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:26.119 her needs and really protective of her, but he could 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.200 also be incredibly spiteful. The ups and downs in their 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:35.000 relationship prompted him to rant to various people that children 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.000 were the worst and no one should ever have them. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.320 Jen is the only known child of McAfee, although he 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:48.120 once tweeted that he'd fathered forty seven children. We learned 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.240 he posted that after he and jan had had a 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:57.840 particularly bad phone call. McAfee had a lot of complicated relationships. 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:02.520 He alienated a lot of people, and by twenty nineteen 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:11.360 it was just McAfee and his partner Janus. The couple 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.240 arrived in London in late July after being deported from 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.280 the Caribbean. McAfee kept up a steady presence on Twitter, 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:24.720 making claims about his whereabouts that were almost certainly fabrications, 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:30.720 but by October he'd made his way to Spain. Here 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.760 he is giving a speech on stage at a blockchain 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:41.080 conference in Barcelona. Governments are just now starting to see 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:48.920 the blockchain and cryptocurrency as an opportunity or a threat 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:55.440 or something to fear. We asked Janus when they had 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.320 come to Spain and why, and we were surprised that 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.200 she was Heiji. Okay, so I can't really say when 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:06.600 we arrived in Spain. The friends that were assisting Johnny, 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.199 you know, those were John's friends, and there was an 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:13.920 expectation of privacy that I want to be sure I'm respecting. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.840 She told us she was worried for her safety. She 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.880 thought she'd been followed while shopping, and she didn't know 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:27.720 who to trust. It was McAfee's relentless tweeting over the 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:33.439 ensuing months that ultimately revealed his movements. Images he posted 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:36.880 from his daily life caught the attention of at least 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.320 one amateur sleuth, who goes by the name Senor Bigottis 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:48.160 Catalan for mister Mustache. Here's our contributing reporter, Matthew Bremner. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.280 So we got a tip from Senor Bigottis and he 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.920 told us to go to a tattoo parlor where we 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.120 know McAfee visited a couple of times. It's called Scorpio Tattoo. 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:00.960 It's in the center of Gambrills, and we spoke to 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:06.359 the owner, Santiago Quebas. Cambriel's is a tiny beach community 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:11.719 on Catalonia's Golden Coast, south of the Rocky Parades Mountains 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:16.400 and ninety minutes from Barcelona by car. The population is 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:21.280 just thirty thousand people. Santiago says McAfee came to his 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:28.559 shop in late twenty nineteen. He knew exactly what he wanted. 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.640 I was struck by it because I said, what is 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.160 this you want? He said, well, look, this is like 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.400 a word, a symbol of mine to know that I 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:47.120 am alive. The tattoo that McAfee wanted was the word whacked. 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:53.000 That tattoo became famous, a totem for McAfee's followers to brandish, 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.240 alongside conspiracies that he'd been a wanted man who wouldn't 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.400 go quietly. He was convinced that powerful people wanted to 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.719 kill him, and he advertised it on Twitter to make 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.240 sure everyone knew. Santiago didn't know any of this at 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.760 the time. He didn't even know what the word whacked meant, 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:17.200 but McAfee left an impression on him. They chatted a 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.480 lot over the hour and a half McAfee was in 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:26.600 his chair. I thought he was quite a funny person, ugly, 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:32.200 very nice. At the time. I didn't know who he 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.839 was until I got a call from a newspaper in 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:41.200 Tarragona and they told me. By the next year, things 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:45.440 changed sharply from McAfee and his quiet existence in Spain. 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:50.040 Twenty twenty begins with the rapid spread of the coronavirus, 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:55.400 sending the world into crisis. Spain is among the hardest hit. 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.920 In the beginning, the country is forced into an extraordinary lockdown. 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:05.960 The Twitter sleuth Senor Bigottis notices that McAfee's showcasing he's 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.680 defiance of those restrictions in his tweets at the beginning. 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.720 He was in Tarragona, I think, and he was the 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.240 few people that he was outside in the in the street. 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.800 I thought, this guy is gonna have problems. Here's our reporter, Matthew. 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.880 Spain has one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.559 Military on the streets, police are everywhere. And it's at 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.000 this time that Senor Bigottis finds himself really tracking the 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:38.760 whereabouts of John McAfee quite closely. Something to know about 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.440 Senor Bigottis is he's just a guy who's bored online. 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.679 He's locked in COVID quarantine like everyone else, and this 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.600 is a way to pass the time. And in case 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:54.240 you were wondering, mister mustache does have a mustache. It 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.520 was funny for me because just in the beginning he 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:04.160 has a picture peeking in the parking of McDonald's. If 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.640 he didn't catch that he says, he finds a picture 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.479 of McAfee peeing in the parking lot of a McDonald's 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.400 and this is where he starts noticing very familiar things, 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.840 things very close to home. On McAfee's Twitter feet he 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:23.800 published a video near the beach, I could see a park, 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:30.040 a child park. That's it's here. In Gambriel's he realizes 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:35.439 that McAfee is in his hometown. I see some pictures 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:41.280 and identify that he was in this National road National 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:46.560 three hundred and forty. About a mile outside of town, 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.720 just off a busy main road, is an abandoned hotel 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:55.720 called Daurada Park. This is where Senor Begottis believes McAfee 0:13:55.800 --> 0:14:00.360 was staying. In early twenty twenty, Matthew visited the hotel. 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.079 So the roof of the main entrance there is falling down. 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:05.760 There's a big chunk out of it, as if someone 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.440 had taken like a bite out of it. However, there 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.839 is a security camera there. The hotel hasn't been operating 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:18.160 in any official capacity since twenty seventeen. UM. There are 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.320 no tourists here, that's for sure. On those balconies there 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:23.920 is evidence that people are living there, So there are tables, 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:29.040 their plants, their mosquito nets. In twenty eighteen, about a 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:33.840 year after receiving its last guest, the police raided the hotel. 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.960 Here's Rebecca Carunco, a crime reporter for the newspaper L 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:43.720 Bays who covered McAfee's time in Spain. So beens that 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.200 want people. The local authorities thought there was some sort 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.400 of illegal activity going on there, related to a brothel 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.160 or something like that, but then they raid the place 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:58.280 and find out it's a crypto mine. Of course, a 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.040 cryptocurrency mine in itself is not an illegal thing. It's 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.200 just that some people who have cryptocurrency farms are often 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:12.720 illegally tapping the electric supply. Matthew says it's an unusual 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.160 place to have a crypto mine, mainly because the energy 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:20.240 bills are high there, and well it's just really hot 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.240 and supercomputer as well. They need to be kept cool. 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:28.160 So it would be much more likely to find a 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:30.840 crypto mine in a place like Alaska or Canada, and 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:37.440 not on Spain's Mediterranean coast. Authorities found nothing illegal happening 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:42.480 with the operation. No one was arrested, no assets were seized, 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:49.320 the crypto mine was left intact. It flew under the 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:54.320 radar until McAfee started uploading photos and videos in early 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.600 twenty twenty. Senior Bigotis talks to us about one video 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:03.400 in particular, which shows acafee at a bar with Janis 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:08.200 talking to two Russians or Russian speakers, and they're teaching 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.000 him and Janis how to speak Russian. I would like 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:30.400 to introduce Janis and our Russian coaches, job Smith America. 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.120 There's been a lot of speculation about this connection between 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.840 McAfee and Russians in both the Spanish and international press 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.640 of late For example, the Daily Mail called the hotel 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.240 at the Park a ghost hotel which is owned by 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.280 an unnamed Russian businessman. It all sounds very vague, and 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.600 these shady references to Russians, I mean, it sounds a 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.600 bit like a bad nineteen eighties Hollywood action film. But 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:06.320 I mean that's where we are at the moment. No 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.000 one who was close to McAfee at the time would 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.880 tell us much about his associates, but Janus says their 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:17.560 collaboration dated back to at least twenty eighteen. Janus also 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.960 confirmed that she and McAfee had spent time at the 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:25.480 Dawdada Park Hotel. We weren't able to get ahold of 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:31.080 McAfee's associates in Spain. McAfee seemed to enjoy cultivating this 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.120 air of mystery around them. The idea that they were 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:39.560 powerful people with important connections in Russia appears to have 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:44.439 been concocted by McAfee himself. From what we could gather, 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.040 it seemed to be just another group of people trying 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:52.960 to squeeze money for themselves out of crypto desperate enough 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.919 or maybe savvy enough to hitch their wagon to McAfee. 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:02.360 The crypto operation gives gafee enough cash to continue traveling. 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.040 In the summer of twenty twenty, he's railing publicly about 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:11.160 the loss of personal freedom the pandemic has caused, and 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.840 he was making a joke of the health crisis on Twitter. 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.280 I just put on my Twitter account a few hours ago. 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:25.600 I'm auctioning off my COVID nineteen masks, which all made 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:30.280 from women's underwear, all right, and Janis first of all 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:35.119 wears them to stretch them and soften them. And the 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.200 charges from the US against McAfee are still not public, 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.800 but the net is tightening. He receives a notice from 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:48.520 Google saying the IRS is asking for information about his account. 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:55.200 Janis gets a similar message, and yet McAfee can't stop tweeting, 0:18:55.720 --> 0:19:00.800 discussing American foreign policy, talking about all the girlfriends who 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:05.879 tried to kill him. And then on October third, a Saturday, 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:11.040 McAfee is at the airport in Barcelona. He's about to 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.680 board a flight to Istanbul, but his passport gets flagged 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:21.359 and police take him into custody. Here's a report from Reuters. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.760 US federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against McAfee overcharges that 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:31.720 he evaded taxes and wipefully failed to file returns for decades. 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:36.880 He'd done everything possible to avoid accountability, dodging process servers, 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.639 faking a heart attack, and sailing to the Caribbean to 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:47.040 evade American authorities. There was no escape from this. Here's 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:52.879 Rebecca the Lpius reporter. When he is arrested, it's a 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.920 local judge from Catalonia who looks at what evidence there 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.359 is and whether they put him in prison or not. Imprision, 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.640 the judge decides that McAfee is a flight risk and 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.560 should be locked up. Almost three weeks after his arrest, 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:13.000 Janice posts an audio recording McAfee made from prison. She 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:17.120 now has control over his Twitter account and posts updates 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:21.600 on his behalf. I love you all and I miss 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:28.199 being able to share videos and photos with you. It 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:33.960 is impossible for America to extradite me. I do believe this. 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:42.320 The documentation they have discovered about me, they simply pulls 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.400 out of their ass And the Spanish people on Spanish 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:53.000 courts are not stupid. So I do not work. I 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.760 may even get out on bail in a week or two, 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:04.320 and if not, I will eventually be The intention here 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.160 might be to reassure his fans that he'll be released, 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.080 but to me, it sounds more like he's trying to 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:19.720 convince himself. He's slower, hesitant, even pensive. He almost sounds defeated. 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:35.800 We'll be right back. John McAfee was facing a tough 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:40.639 legal fight using money he apparently obtained through his crypto work. 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:45.480 He hired several attorneys to argue his case. There was 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.440 Niche Sannon. My name is Niche Santon. I'm a federal 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.280 criminal defense attorney in Chicago. I have an office in 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:55.399 New York. I also work on international tradition matters and 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.240 practiced federal criminal trial work around the country. On the 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:02.600 crypto side, there was Andrew Gordon. My name is Andrew Gordon. 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.840 I'm the managing attorney and president at Gordon Law in Chicago, 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:11.720 and we are a corporate tax and cryptocurrency law firm. 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:17.560 McAfee had another two attorneys in Spain on various fronts. 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:22.840 They were fighting the DJ and SEC charges and the 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:27.960 extradition request. Andrew spoke to McAfee regularly about the case. 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:33.200 I asked him how McAfee sounded when they spoke, Very 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:39.680 positive spirits, very upbeat. Now, certainly prison is no favorable 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.840 place to be in, but he would always talk about 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:49.960 how popular he was in the prison and how respected 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.240 as the old man in the prison and really is 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.760 trying to make the best of it. McAfee would spend 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:01.840 his last eight and a half months in Brand's to prison. 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.359 The prison is forty five minutes outside of Barcelona. It's 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:09.760 near the town of Martorel. So Matthew went to visit 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:13.040 the site in the spring of twenty twenty two. The 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:18.119 prison itself is this kind of nineteen seventies concrete monstrosity, 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:21.080 and in the background you can sort of see the 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.440 big wire fences which are about I don't know, three 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:27.600 to four meters tall. And then there are these green 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:31.760 roofed warehouses, which I assume are the cellbox where mac 0:23:31.760 --> 0:23:34.919 if you, probably spent a lot of his time. Matthew 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:40.000 is there with Founderings executive producer Sean when they walk 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:44.359 deeper inside the complex, beyond several checkpoints and the first 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:48.200 bend in the road, but it starts to get quiet. 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:51.840 There is no one around, only what looks like the 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:56.680 prisoners entrance up ahead. But then the police car pulls up, 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:04.760 so this is the police tell Matthew and Sean to 0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:14.399 leave the kick that they returned to the main entrance. 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:19.040 In the hallway, they made a prison worker who says 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:21.600 she knew McAfee. Do you remember if he had a 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:27.560 lot of visitors. I can't give you this information, it's confidential, 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:30.120 but I will only say he was a nice man 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:37.720 to deal with. McAfee was very active on Twitter throughout 0:24:37.800 --> 0:24:41.920 his time in prison, describing the food and fellow inmates. 0:24:42.800 --> 0:24:47.679 But over time McAfee's mood changed, and this too was 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:51.320 reflected in his tweets. Titles a tweet Notes from Prison, 0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:53.879 and he says, my body's confined. My mind has always 0:24:53.920 --> 0:24:57.840 been confined by fears, longings, ambitions, escapes from boredom, A 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:00.840 prisoner of my own desires, circum stands move me from 0:25:00.840 --> 0:25:04.760 one prison to the other. There's little difference. His words 0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:08.960 are revealing because in a way, it's McAfee being honest 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:11.919 in public for one of the first times in his life. 0:25:12.600 --> 0:25:18.760 He was struggling mentally, emotionally, and physically. McAfee and his 0:25:18.920 --> 0:25:22.639 lawyers argue in an extradition hearing that he's old and 0:25:22.760 --> 0:25:26.560 weak with a chronic lung condition. They say even a 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:30.119 few years in jail could be a death sentence. If 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:42.399 I am extraditement to the US, please translate it, I 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:49.880 will certainly spend the rest of my life in prison 0:25:52.000 --> 0:26:06.440 conversed according to jail, all these things into consideration. Thank you. 0:26:09.080 --> 0:26:12.880 McAfee's lost weight. His hair is dark and pulled back 0:26:12.920 --> 0:26:16.919 from his face. He's hunched over. We were told that 0:26:16.920 --> 0:26:20.399 when McAfee's daughter watched this video from the hearing, she 0:26:20.480 --> 0:26:28.040 said he didn't even look like himself. A week later, 0:26:28.280 --> 0:26:32.640 the Spanish court decided to grant the US government's extradition request. 0:26:34.080 --> 0:26:37.240 Janner spoke to McAfee on the morning of June twenty third, 0:26:38.160 --> 0:26:43.800 he just returned from court. Our conversation was not There 0:26:43.880 --> 0:26:46.520 was nothing different in his voice. There was no change 0:26:46.600 --> 0:26:50.520 of his attitude. There was no He didn't sound down 0:26:50.600 --> 0:26:53.320 or depressed or anything. He actually was like, okay, so 0:26:53.400 --> 0:26:55.760 what's the attorney's working on. You know, I understand that 0:26:55.800 --> 0:26:58.280 we got this appeal and he was wanting to know, Okay, 0:26:58.320 --> 0:26:59.960 what's on the next steps that we're going to do, 0:27:00.600 --> 0:27:02.880 so you know, we can move forward in five days. 0:27:04.200 --> 0:27:08.800 Breaking news on your Wednesday afternoon. John McAfee, the creator 0:27:08.800 --> 0:27:11.840 of the McAfee anti virus software, has been found dead 0:27:11.880 --> 0:27:15.160 in his jail cell in Spain. Seventy five year old 0:27:15.160 --> 0:27:18.360 was arrested last October at the International Airport in Barstow. 0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:23.680 It's been a challenge trying to ascertain exactly what happened. 0:27:23.760 --> 0:27:27.960 In the early evening of June twenty third. Inside McAfee's cell, 0:27:28.840 --> 0:27:31.480 Janice told us that she'd been given a report on 0:27:31.560 --> 0:27:35.159 the investigation into the events of that day, but she 0:27:35.200 --> 0:27:38.760 wouldn't show it to us. Neither the police nor the 0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:42.800 court would say anything about the case, citing strict privacy 0:27:42.880 --> 0:27:46.919 laws in Spain. We know though, that at six pm 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:51.080 When guards opened the door to McAfee's cell, they found 0:27:51.160 --> 0:27:55.760 him hanging from something attached to the window. John McAfee, 0:27:55.800 --> 0:28:01.760 the cybersecurity pioneer, the accused murderer and fraudster about to 0:28:01.800 --> 0:28:05.920 be extradited to face the American justice system, is dead 0:28:06.000 --> 0:28:10.240 at the age of seventy five. But Rebecca, the crime reporter, 0:28:10.760 --> 0:28:14.920 said Catalonia officials issued a press release announcing his death 0:28:15.000 --> 0:28:19.280 in prison. So I start calling police officers that I 0:28:19.359 --> 0:28:21.800 know who have ties to the area where this happened. 0:28:23.840 --> 0:28:27.880 Her contacts tell her that they believe McAfee was left 0:28:27.920 --> 0:28:31.359 alone in his cell for a couple of hours and 0:28:31.520 --> 0:28:35.719 that's when he killed himself. From the beginning, the police 0:28:35.760 --> 0:28:39.480 tell me that there might be a suicide note. A 0:28:39.560 --> 0:28:43.520 prison officer reports finding what appeared to be a suicide 0:28:43.560 --> 0:28:48.920 note in McAfee's pocket. It reads, I am a phantom parasite. 0:28:49.520 --> 0:28:53.200 I want to control my future, which does not exist. 0:28:54.120 --> 0:28:58.480 Janis shared this note on Twitter. We asked several people 0:28:58.560 --> 0:29:01.760 close to McAfee, who told us that the handwriting and 0:29:01.920 --> 0:29:07.560 the style are definitely his. The coroner rules his death 0:29:07.640 --> 0:29:14.959 a suicide. The case goes to a local court for review. 0:29:14.960 --> 0:29:18.480 The judge said, Okay, with everything I have, I have 0:29:18.560 --> 0:29:22.240 no indication that there is anything strange about this suicide. 0:29:24.720 --> 0:29:32.320 Rebecca says. In Spain, all violent deaths, including suicides, are investigated. 0:29:32.600 --> 0:29:35.560 The Spanish penal code considers suicide as a form of 0:29:35.640 --> 0:29:43.920 violent death. Why well, because you kill yourself. Andrew Gordon, 0:29:44.280 --> 0:29:48.280 McAfee's lawyer in Chicago found out when a reporter called 0:29:48.320 --> 0:29:51.600 his office with the news. She called me and said, 0:29:51.880 --> 0:29:54.800 asking for a comment on John's death. This is just bullshit. 0:29:54.880 --> 0:29:59.160 That's just you know, someone pulling her leg to get lost. Um. 0:30:00.120 --> 0:30:03.200 Then we got the second call, and then I started 0:30:03.200 --> 0:30:06.120 searching on the internet, and then I reached out to Janis, 0:30:06.680 --> 0:30:09.959 and Janis at that time was going through the literal 0:30:10.080 --> 0:30:13.480 same experience where she was finding out on the news 0:30:15.240 --> 0:30:20.640 in Barcelona. Janus struggled with the bureaucracy. She didn't understand 0:30:20.720 --> 0:30:24.400 why she couldn't see the body right away. When the 0:30:24.440 --> 0:30:29.560 Spanish authorities eventually grunted her access, she only saw McAfee 0:30:29.640 --> 0:30:33.600 from behind a window. It's likely Janus was kept in 0:30:33.640 --> 0:30:38.200 a different room because of COVID restrictions, but it just 0:30:38.320 --> 0:30:42.400 compounded her perception that Spanish authorities were involved in a 0:30:42.480 --> 0:30:47.240 cover up, and I think it's very telling that here 0:30:47.280 --> 0:30:49.960 I am a year later and I still can't get 0:30:49.960 --> 0:30:53.800 his body. Remember, Janis told us that she had been 0:30:53.840 --> 0:30:57.000 given a report on the investigation into the events of 0:30:57.040 --> 0:31:00.400 that day, but again she wouldn't show it to us. 0:31:01.360 --> 0:31:05.360 Janas says there was a brief discrepancy in the description 0:31:05.560 --> 0:31:09.280 of the noose. At first the police said he used 0:31:09.280 --> 0:31:13.160 a shoe string, and then later called it a rope. 0:31:13.840 --> 0:31:17.920 This could easily be explained by a clerical error, but 0:31:18.040 --> 0:31:23.200 Jana seized on it as yet another clue of something suspicious. Honestly, 0:31:23.240 --> 0:31:25.840