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Why Did John McAfee Go to Jail? Why Was He Escaping the U.S. Authorities? Full Story Explained!

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Aug 30, 2022 @ 8:04 EDT
Why Did John McAfee Go to Jail? Why Was He Escaping the U.S. Authorities? Full Story Explained!

John McAfee went to jail after he claimed that he had not been paying taxes for 8 years and was charged with tax evasion. The tech millionaire was on the run multiple times from the US authorities before finally being imprisoned in Spain at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. Follow the article to find the full story of what actually happened before his death.

Netflix's Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee is unlike anything else as a long-form documentary, and we can only characterize it as equally intriguing, chaotic, and complicated. That's because it explores the depths of the fugitive years of the formerly well-known software entrepreneur through revealing footage and exclusive interviews.

The Netflix documentary chronicles the colorful life of John McAfee, the inventor of McAfee Anti-Virus, one of the most popular pieces of computer software ever. Although he was extremely successful, John also frequently ran afoul of the law and eventually took a film crew with him when he was sought by police for questioning regarding the murder of his neighbor.

John McAfee had been hiding out for years prior to his arrest. The Netflix documentary follows McAfee as he challenges Belizean authorities and was on the run. Later, he was arrested in Guatemala. With this, there comes a question: Why did he go to jail? Well, let's find it out in detail.

Previously, we touched on Sam Herrera, Janice McAfee, and her estimated net worth.

John McAfee Went to Jail After He Was Charged With Tax Evasion and Other Criminal Activities: Full Story Explained!

On October 5, 2020, John McAfee was arrested and kept in jail in Spain for tax evasion at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. Despite making millions of dollars, John avoided paying taxes on his income from 2014 to 2018, according to federal investigators. The tax-related criminal accusations carried a maximum 30-year prison sentence.

John stated to Fox News in 2019 that he had not paid any taxes since 2010 and that he had made it that taxes were illegal. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint the day following his arrest, on October 6, alleging that John and his bodyguard promoted certain initial coin offerings in a dishonest cryptocurrency pump and dump scam.

The Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office officially indicted him and an executive adviser on these allegations on March 5, 2021. After his arrest, he was imprisoned in Spain, where he remained until his death in June 2021.

However, throughout his life, John McAfee was on the run multiple times. After the death of his neighbor, Gregory Faull, in Belize, he made his first run. In the documentary, a local resident describes how John and Gregory had an argument earlier in the year over John's four dogs, who were harassing his neighbor's parrot.

John's dogs were poisoned and killed, and Gregory was found dead a day later with a single gunshot wound to the head. Dean Barrow, Belize's then-prime minister, referred to John as paranoid and insane because he thought the country's officials would kill him if he turned himself in for questioning.

John McAfee was never accused of murdering Gregory Faull. But in 2019, John fled once more, this time from US officials who were accusing him of tax evasion. Prior to being apprehended in Spain in October 2020, he lived on a boat.

John stated that he had been singled out by the authorities even before Gregory was killed, particularly after he had been detained in Belize for unlawful firearm possession and narcotics manufacturing.

He then began to face additional charges in the US, such as a civil suit brought after two people died as a result of his involvement in an Aerotek accident, as well as a Tennessee DUI and gun possession accusation.

Thanks to two VICE reporters who had joined John on the run, John was caught for the first time. By posting a geotagged image in an article captioned "We're with John McAfee right now, suckers!" they unintentionally revealed where he was hiding.

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