John McAfee, the antivirus software entrepreneur, was found dead in a Barcelona prison cell shortly after a Spanish court approved his extradition to the U.S. to face tax evasion charges, reports say.
The Catalan Department of Justice said prison medical personnel and guards attempted to perform life-saving procedures on the 75-year-old, but were not successful.
According to officials, "everything indicates" McAfee had taken his own life.
Attorneys for McAfee confirmed his death to The New York Times and Reuters, with one saying it was "the result of a cruel system that had no reason to keep this man in jail for so long."
Javier Villalba, McAfee's lawyer, said Wednesday evening that McAfee hanged himself in his prison cell as his nine months in detention caused him so much despair.
The U.S. justice department claimed that McAfee evaded tax liability by having his income paid into bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchange accounts in the names of nominees, BBC reported.
McAfee was arrested in October at Barcelona's international airport as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul.
In a virtual hearing in a Spanish court earlier this month, McAfee contended the tax evasion charges against him were politically motivated, The Associated Press said.
He had also been charged with securities fraud in connection to an alleged cryptocurrency scheme.
McAfee's criminal charges carried a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
A prominent figure in the technology world, McAfee's company developed the first commercial antivirus software.
The McAfee VirusScan sparked a multibillion dollar industry in the global computer business, and was eventually sold to technology company Intel for $7.7 billion.
He twice made long shot runs for the U.S. presidency and participated in presidential debates in 2016.
Nishay Sanan, McAfee's Chicago-based attorney, said Spanish authorities have not given his legal team a cause of death report.
Sanan said he wants to know if there were surveillance cameras in McAfee's cell or in the prison to determine the exact cause of death.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Memphis declined to comment.
