Four things to know about presidential hopeful John McAfee

12 Sep 2015

      The Hill say he's a nutjob. I concur. Ate too many DMT-ridden plants or
lizards somewhere .

"Security software pioneer and newly minted presidential candidate John
McAfee has led an unusual life, to put it mildly.

He’s played Russian roulette in front of a reporter to prove a point,
was once a fugitive from the law in Belize and, just last month, was
arrested for an alleged gun violation and driving under the influence.

In keeping with his unconventional style, McAfee’s bid for the White
House, announced this week, will be waged a candidate from his own
“Cyber Party.”

"I have a huge underground following on the web," McAfee told CNN Money.
"I promise you I will win because I have the votes."

On the same day he announced he was running for president, TV network
Spike announced they were planning to air a series next year that “will
be centered around McAfee's first-person interviews and will reveal
unanswered questions about his life ranging from drug-fueled college
days in Virginia, to learning to battle computer viruses early in his
career at Lockheed in the 1980's, to starting McAfee and Associates in
1987, to the 2012 murder investigation in Belize.”

Here are four know about McAfee as he reenters the national spotlight.

He built fortune on antivirus software, then lost it

McAfee made his millions at the anti-virus company that bore his name.
He ultimately cashed out, selling his stake in the firm after taking it
public.

But his fortune took a hit during the 2008 recession. He was worth about
$100 million before the financial crisis, and less than $10 million
after. He said that his losses were exacerbated because much of his
money was tied up in real estate.

“My father always said, 'Real estate, you can't lose in real estate' ...
you know, oddly enough you can,” he told ABC News at the time.

He sold many of his assets, including houses in Hawaii, Colorado and New
Mexico and moved to Belize to develop “natural” antibiotics.

McAfee Associates, the company he founded, was bought by Intel in 2010.
They dropped his name from the brand in 2014.

The Russian roulette story

While McAfee was in Belize, a Wired magazine writer visited his compound
to report a profile. McAfee pulled out a gun during a conversation with
the writer about the Belizean authorities’ interest in his activities.

McAfee put one bullet in the chamber and placed the gun to his head,
according to the profile. “Maybe what happened didn’t actually happen.
Can I do a demonstration?” he asked the writer, who wrote that he tried
to deescalate the situation.

McAfee pulled the trigger repeatedly. Nothing happened.

“I can do this all day long. I can do this a thousand times. Ten
thousand times. Nothing will ever happen,” he said. “Why? Because you
have missed something. You are operating on an assumption about reality
that is wrong.”

The fugitive

In 2012, authorities in Belize investigating the murder of McAfee’s
neighbor, Gregory Faull, were looking to speak with McAfee. He and the
man had had disputes over McAfee’s dogs and the security guards that
watched his property. McAfee told authorities that his dogs had been
poisoned two days before Faull died.

McAfee maintained his innocence and fled the authorities. He said he
thought he would not get a fair hearing in the country. “Things do not
operate here as they do in the States,” he said. “We are living in a
near dictatorship where the legal system is subservient to the cabinet."

His flight from Belize made national headlines and media outlet Vice was
briefly embroiled in a controversy when it appeared as though they had
leaked McAfee’s location accidentally. But after a month on the lam, he
ended up in the capital city of Guatemala.

“I like Guatemala. I think the legal system in Guatemala is superior to
the legal system in Belize," he told CNN at the time. "Guatemala is
close, it is beautiful and most importantly, I enjoy the company of
Guatemalans.”

DUI arrest

After a period of relative quiet, McAfee surfaced again when he was
arrested earlier this year for a gun possession violation and a DUI in
Tennessee. He claimed that while he was impaired, he hadn’t been
drinking alcohol. Instead, he said that a new prescription for Xanax had
impaired his driving.

"Never taken them before,” he told CNBC. “And in fact I was impaired, I
must admit."

He has also been running a company called Future Tense Central. It backs
a range of products and services, one of which is called Autonomous
Armor. The website for the forthcoming product lists several of McAfee’s
accomplishments, before offering a coda.

“Billions of dollars and decades later,” it says. “McAfee is back and at
it again.”

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/253454-four-things-to-know-about-presid...

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