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John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

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Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#591
post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed an alternative possiblity, but the possiblity that he was murdered should not be discounted. Murdering those that challenge authority has been happening since the dawn of history and nothing has fundamentally changed. Well other than needing to make it look like a suicide since modern society likes to believe it's enlightened.

It should absolutely be discounted. There's literally no evidence suggesting he was murdered. He was about to be extradited, the US Government was well on their way to making an example of him. There was no incentive to murder him.

I feel like, in the world of outlandish theories, faking his own death is far more likely than a gangland murder.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#592
post #470

The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…

To be fair he killed a guy so...

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#593
post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he's obviously unstable This is ridiculous. Okay so let's leave all the rich people alone who claim they are unstable. McAfee made millions, from what I understand, he paid little taxes on that. That's stupid. I don't care how unstable you are, or how good you are donating your "fair share". You're still not excused from paying your taxes.

Bezos and McAffee paid about the same amount of taxes.

Leaked tax returns show Bezos paid $973 million in taxes. I don’t think mcafee ever had that much to his name much less paying taxes at that level. He publicly said he hadn’t filed taxes, blatantly flouting the law. He was also a scammer indicted for cryptocurrency pump and dump schemes that fleeced twitter users.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#594
post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dude was found liable for two people's deaths, and evaded taxes, like... I dunno. He doesn't seem like that great of a guy. He seems like a self-centered reckless narcissist leaving destruction in his wake.

When was he found guilty for the dead neighbor? Anyways---you don't poison a guy's dogs. (Yea--I know, I'm suspose to be compassionate over rich dead guys. By rich dead guys, I mean the neighbor who was constantly complaining over John's dogs whom was found dead. As far as today, they had no evidence against John.) I liked John. I liked he was different than most rich guys. I painfully remember him stating he doesn't…

Also the death of his nephew and the passenger of the glider that crashed from the extreme sport he was trying to promote.

"Not like other rich dudes", uhh, we have plenty of other eccentric rich people, like Richard Branson or Elon Musk, etc... I am sure there are plenty more examples out there.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#595
post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos and McAffee paid about the same amount of taxes.

That isn't relevant for two reasons: 1. Tax evasion and tax avoidance are not the same thing. 2. Most people who think McAffee didn't pay enough taxes probably also believe Bezos doesn't pay enough taxes.

[deleted]

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be noted that this Hunter S Thompson quote refers to Oscar Zeta Acosta. Acosta made a big difference fighting for the rights of poor and marginalized mexican-americans in east LA. He did something more with his life than just take a lot of drugs and be weird.

HST did a lot more than do drugs and be weird, but I wouldn't imagine a computer nerd who clacks on a keyboard to know much about Gonzojournalism or the effects it's had on American culture.

Just a note on a reason you likely got so many downvotes, beyond the tone: the parent was likely referring to McAfee with that remark, not to Thompson.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#597
post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prison time here in Germany is limited to 15 years at max — independent on the number of crimes. People imprisoned for violent crimes may stay there for their whole life if they pose an ongoing threat to public safety.

- Prison time here in Germany is limited to 15 years at max - People imprisoned for violent crimes may stay there for their whole life if they pose an ongoing threat to public safety. So... Germany DOES have a life sentence. Kinda misleading to state it doesn't.

[deleted]

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#598
post #66

I met John in an Atlanta airport lounge years ago[1]. I recognized him immediately as I've always admired him, and I decided to go up to him and tell him as much. He invited me to sit down, and told him about when I was a teenager in the 90s learning about tech entrepreneurs at the time, I always thought he was pretty cool and had good ideas. I told him I respected him, and that I was sure he'd lived an incredible li…

I looked at that photo and realized I knew you Small world, my co-founer and I won 2 DigitalOcean awards at HackTech and LA Hacks that you awarded us

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#599
post #470

The sad thing is that our government seems to make a point of screwing with kooks. I don’t care if McAffee owed some taxes - leave the guy alone, he’s obviously unstable, has major problems with drug and alcohol addiction and all they can do is try to bring him even lower. Poor guy had major problems even before the “heroes” of the FBI or the IRS or whatever started screwing with him. Let the poor guy ride off into t…

Musk's a rich kook and I sure don't see the government screwing with him.

Re: John McAfee found dead in Spanish jail after court approves extradition to US

#600
post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany has more draconic laws than the US in this situation, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. "Under German law, the maximum term for one count of aggravated tax evasion is 10 years. If an accused is convicted of more than one count, the court can increase the maximum to 15 years." The US is 5 years for each count, half of Germany's. Macafee was under accused of multiple crimes, which added up to the headl…

Nope, we don’t add up prison time in Germany for repeating the same or related crimes over and over. On top, the 10/15 years are the maximum and barely reached. E.g. Uli Hoeneß, ex-manager of the soccer club Bayern Munich, got 3.5 years for evasion of ~30m dollar in a total of 7 counts, but could actually leave prison after sth like two years, 1.5 of which where „open jail time“, so he could go to work and only had t…

> Nope, we don’t add up prison time in Germany for repeating the same or related crimes over and over. On top, the 10/15 years are the maximum and barely reached.

The USA is similar, sentences are often served concurrently meaning the headline numbers don’t get added up. Headlines reflect the absolute maximum penalties but there’s something called the Sentencing Guidelines that is used to set the actual length of the sentences and whether they are concurrent. https://www.ussc.gov/guidelines/introducing-guidelines-app

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