U.S. software company founder McAfee held in Spain

John McAfee, the founder of the McAfee antivirus software company, was arrested at Barcelona's El Prat airport over the weekend on charges of tax evasion, reported Xinhua, quoting the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

El Pais and Spanish state TV network RTVE both reported on Tuesday that McAfee was detained at around 9:30 a.m. local time on Saturday before boarding a flight to Istanbul when a passport check showed an international arrest warrant had been issued for him for charges of fraud.

The 75-year-old, who has been in Spain since March, was immediately arrested.

The U.S. Department of Justice has said in a statement that McAfee, who sold his antivirus company to Intel for 7.7 billion U.S. dollars, allegedly hid millions of dollars of income from U.S. tax authorities over the period 2014-2018 by using fake bank accounts in other people's names.

He is also accused of concealing other assets, including a yacht and real estate property, in the names of others.