McAfee may not be dead

John McAfee, 75, was found dead in a prison cell in Barcelona just hours after a Spanish judge agreed to extradite him to the United States to face tax evasion charges. The Catalan judicial department said in a statement that attempts to resurrect McAfee were failed. “Everything indicates to a suicide death,” the statement continued.

But since reports of his death have surfaced, the hacker community and conspiracy theorists have absolutely gone frenzy. As it may happen, John McAfee was not a normal person. He was the founder of the antivirus called McAfee Antivirus, an eminent and respected tech wizard and a billionaire. But that was not the only interesting thing about McAfee. Over years, with his cyber genius, he had amassed 31 terabytes of incriminating data, and had made the world aware of it over a period of time. He had also said that when he dies, that the angle of a suicide should be discarded as he will never take his own life.

A 2019 tweet from the antivirus software mogul’s verified Twitter account appeared to be emboldening some of these claims: “If I suicide myself, I didn’t,” the tweet said.

Besides, John had also said that he had a dead switch, that is, when he dies the information that he has will be released on the internet. And this has given rise to two major conspiracy theories as well:

• John McAfee is dead and the information has been leaked in encrypted codes and messages, and in time it will be found by people and hackers,
• The other theory is, that McAfee never died as his dead switch never went off and he has faked his death.

A large number of speculation and conspiracies have started to emerge, mostly triggered by a cryptic message. QAnon conspiracy theorists speculated that John McAfee had activated a so-called “dead man’s switch” to expose the government after seeing a mysterious image posted on his Instagram shortly after he was reported dead.

McAfee’s Instagram account displayed a huge “Q” with no caption or explanation less than an hour after his apparent suicide was reported. The letter Q appears to be a reference to the extremist QAnon movement, about which McAfee has joked and tweeted several times in recent years.

On Telegram, several powerful and popular QAnon profiles claimed that the concealed key was actually instructions and that McAfee had also activated a dead man’s switch—a term for when a gadget or computer software activates itself when its owner dies.

Apart from the possibility that McAfee did not commit suicide—similar to the rumours surrounding the death of highly well-connected millionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in August 2019—a number of QAnon fans speculated that a cryptographic key was concealed in the “Q” Instagram post.

“I’ve collected files on corruption in governments. For the first time, I’m naming names and specifics. I’ll begin with a corrupt CIA agent and two Bahamian officials. Coming today. If I’m arrested or disappear, 31+ terabytes of incriminating data will be released to the press,” McAfee tweeted on June 9, 2019.

Eleven days later, he added: “The instant I disappear the information is released. Those named would be crazy to kill me or collect me. They are simply praying I live forever. If it’s released, revenge takes over and I’m dead.”

MelQ, a QAnon advocate with 139,000 subscribers on Telegram, wrote: “There is the possibly a Key code to a dead mans switch. A file that has damning evidence against the deep state, that is to be unlocked at the time of his death. We will see if this pans out. Only time will tell.”

The code is actually metadata that Facebook, which owns Instagram, uses on all images, according to QAnon John, real name John Sabal, who just coordinated the large QAnon conference in Dallas, Texas. “It’s an internal copyrighting tool used to track photo usage,” Sabal wrote. “Also, John McAfee did not commit suicide.”

Without mentioning the Instagram image, former 8kun administrator Ron Watkins, who denies being the de-facto leader of the organisation known as Q, theorised that McAfee might still be alive and have a dead man’s switch. “Regarding John McAfee: He was in jail. He has a dead man switch. He ‘died’. His dead man switch has not (yet) activated,” Watkins wrote on Telegram. “We will know soon if he is really dead, or managed to escape from prison under the guise of a ‘suicide’ [i.e. Epstein.]”

In an October 2020 tweet sent while he was in a Barcelona jail, John McAfee added: “I am content in here. I have friends.The food is good. All is well. Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.”

Moreover, McAfee’s lawyer has also stated that McAfee had no signs of suicidal intent. The antivirus software executive’s death came as a shock to his wife and his relatives, according to Javier Villalba, a Spanish lawyer representing McAfee.

“This has been like pouring cold water on the family and on his defense team,” Villalba said.

“Nobody expected it, he had not said goodbye.” Villalba told Reuters on Thursday that he “had constant telephone contact” with McAfee and “at no point had he shown any special worry or clue that could let us think this could have happened.”

On Thursday, a court official for the Catalan region told the Associated Press that toxicology tests on McAfee’s body would be required to identify the cause of death, and that the results may take “days or weeks.”

For neglecting to file tax returns for four years, the 75-year-old entrepreneur was detained on tax evasion allegations. He has been in jail in Spain since October 6, accused of concealing major assets such as real estate and a yacht. His defence attorneys maintained that the extradition request was politically motivated and so unsuitable. According to court documents unsealed on Wednesday, he disagreed with the current monetary system, earning him the moniker “public enemy No. 1.”