John McAfee is an American computer programmer and a 2016 US presidential candidate.
He developed the first commercial anti-virus program, which bore the McAfee brand-name
for years.
More recently, he became an international fugitive after fleeing police in Belize following
the murder of his island neighbour.
This is his fascinating story.
McAfee was born in the United Kingdom but raised in America.
He was employed as a computer programmer by NASA in New York City for two years until
1970.
From there he worked for various different companies as a software designer, operating
system architect and software consultant.
He worked for consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in the early 80s, the same company that Edward
Snowden was employed by when he became a whistle-blower.
Later in the 1980s while employed by Lockheed, McAfee received a copy of a computer virus
and began developing software to combat this and other viruses.
In 1987 McAfee founded McAfee Associates, his anti-virus company.
In 1989, he left Lockheed and began working full-time at his company.
McAfee resigned from his company in 1994.
Two years later McAfee Associates went public and he sold his remaining stake in the company.
This helped him reach a peak personal fortune of about $100 million, although this was reduced
after the 2007 global recession.
McAfee Associates was eventually sold to Intel but the software still bore the McAfee name
for years, until it was later rebranded.
In recent years, McAfee has said that being the developer of the first commercial anti-virus
program has made him "the most popular hacking target", saying that hackers see hacking him
as a badge of honour.
As a security measure he has other people buy his computer equipment for him and sets
up his computers and logins using pseudonyms.
In 2008, McAfee bought a beach home in Belize and moved to the Central American country.
Whilst living there his girlfriend at the time tried to shoot him but missed.
However, McAfee is still deaf in one ear from the incident.
Whilst living in Belize, McAfee claims that in 2012 a government representative arrived
at his house and asked whether he would donate $2 million to the political party in power
for the upcoming election.
In return they would offer McAfee several acres of land in Belize and tax breaks.
He politely declined.
A week later his home was raided by the Belizean Police Department.
McAfee was arrested for unlicensed drug manufacturing and possessing an unlicensed weapon, but then
released without charge.
McAfee claims that the same government representative returned the next day, apologised for the
situation and asked him if he’d reconsidered his donation.
McAfee again refused to donate.
Later in 2012, his neighbour in Belize was found dead from a gunshot wound in his nearby
home.
The police started a search for McAfee as he was a person of interest in relation to
the murder.
McAfee said that he has always been afraid police would kill him and therefore refused
their routine questions.
He went into hiding for 6 weeks in Belize to evade the authorities.
Whilst being sought for questioning concerning the murder, he managed to cross the border
into Guatemala and appeared publicly in Guatemala City, where he attempted to seek political
asylum.
At the end of 2012, McAfee was arrested for illegally entering Guatemala.
He was denied asylum, so he was taken to a detention centre in order to await deportation
to Belize the following day.
It was then reported that McAfee had two minor heart attacks in the Guatemalan detention
centre and was hospitalised.
McAfee later stated that he faked the heart attack while being held in Guatemala to buy
time for his attorney to file a series of appeals that ultimately prevented his deportation
to Belize.
A few days later, McAfee was released from detention in Guatemala and deported to the
United States.
Since then the Belizean police presented no new accusations and have not persisted in
seeking McAfee's imprisonment for any of the crimes they accused him of.
However, they have auctioned off McAfee's assets that they seized, and his home was
burned down under suspicious circumstances.
In 2015, McAfee announced that he would seek the office of President of the United States
in the 2016 presidential election, initially as the candidate of a newly formed political
party called the Cyber Party and later instead seeking the presidential nomination of the
Libertarian Party.
Despite being in his 70s, John McAfee shows no signs of slowing down.
Who knows what’s next for the cyber-security legend and international man of intrigue.