John McAfee

John McAfee was an American software entrepreneur, businessman, two-time presidential candidate, and founder of McAfee Corp.

Born in Cinderford, Gloucestershire in 1945 to an American father and English mother, McAfee went on to attend Roanoke College in the late 1960s. McAfee rose to prominence in the mid-1980s when he developed a computer program to neutralize the Pakistani Brain Virus, the first computer virus for IBM PCs. McAfee founded McAfee Associates shortly after in 1987, capitalizing off of the rising concern with computer viruses.

McAfee stepped down from his position as chief executive at McAfee Associates and sold his stake in the company in 1994 for a reported $100 million. He pursued other mostly unsuccessful ventures in the late 90s and early 2000s, such as PowWow, an early Windows messaging service. Later, McAfee was reported to have lost most of his fortune during the 2008 financial crash, causing him to auction off most of his holdings and move to Belize. In Belize, McAfee began creating herb-based antibiotics; his compound was raided by Belize's Gang Suppression Unit in 2012, under accusations he was actually producing methamphetamine. McAfee was released only a week later and retreated to his estate in San Pedro, Belize.

In late 2012, McAfee was named a "person of interest" in the murder of his neighbor, an American named Greg Faull, who was found dead in his home after being shot in the head. McAfee was never charged and fled to Guatemala shortly after. There, he was detained by authorities but suffered two heart attacks before he could be extradited to Belize. McAfee later admitted that he had faked the heart attacks in order to avoid extradition and be sent back to the US instead. The plan worked, and he was sent back to Miami in December of 2012.

After returning to the US, McAfee unsuccessfully tried to win the Libertarian Party's nomination for president in 2016. Promising to, among other things, revamp the US's cybersecurity system, he ultimately came in third, losing to Gary Johnson. McAfee sought the nomination once again in 2020, while he was in exile overseas dodging tax evasion indictments. He ultimately dropped out of the race in March 2020.

In the later years of his life, McAfee gained an internet cult following, due mostly to his active Twitter presence. He became a vocal proponent of cryptocurrency, and accepted money for promoting many different types of alt-coins—alternatives to Bitcoin—on his social media. The SEC estimated that McAfee made around $23 million from promoting cryptocurrencies on Twitter and through crypto "pump-and-dump" schemes between November 2017 and February 18, 2021.

In October 2020, McAfee was arrested in Spain while trying to board a plane to Turkey, wanted by the US Department of Justice on tax evasion, charging that he had failed to file tax returns from 2014 to 2018. McAfee was also charged a day later with securities fraud. On June 23, 2021, a high court in Spain had agreed to extradite McAfee to the US to stand trial. Hours later, McAfee was found dead in his Barcelona prison cell of an apparent suicide.