Creator of one of the world’s best-known antivirus, John McAfee has lived a life of controversy, drug involvement, and even murder charges
John McAfee he is, without doubt, one of the most important and controversial figures in the world of technology. He was a pioneer in the digital security sector, being the creator of the antivirus that, even today and many years after his departure, still bears his name; he was also someone who lived on the edge, authorized to get involved in hard drugs, shady deals, crime and even a murder charge.
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It is this absurd saga that will be told in a new documentary by Netflix. John McAfee: genius, controversial and fugitive the release is scheduled for August 24 and reports the years in which the specialist lived as a fugitive from justice and the accusations that hung over him until his death, in a prison in Spain, a reason for conspiracy and suspicion still today.
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Directed by Charlie Russell (Terry Pratchett: Choosing to die), the film promises to bring unpublished scenes and interviews about this troubled moment in the life of McAfee. Also, as the trailer itself demonstrates, the idea is to explore if there is something crazy about her behavior in her later years, something that some of her later years curiosities can help answer.
accusation of murder
Gregory Faull’s death was, without a doubt, the fact that most marked John McAfee’s trajectory over the past decade. The security expert moved to Belize in 2008 after the financial crisis eroded his fortune, then valued at $ 100 million, just $ 4 million. There, he ended up involved in the murder of his neighbor.victim of gunshot wounds in November 2012.
In the weeks following the crime, Belize police began looking for McAfee as a suspect. He fled, claiming that the murder was a ploy to be arrested and then killed: during one of the searches of his house, he spent hours hiding, buried in the sand, with only his head covered in a cardboard box.
Faull was a former United States Navy SEAL who worked in the construction industry before moving to Belize in 2009 after splitting from his wife. He bought an old house next to McAfee’s residence and, during the renovation, he also quarreled several times with the developer for various reasons; the expert, for example, said that the neighbor tried to poison his pet dogs.
The investigation into the case continued full of surreal events, such as the discovery of one of his hiding places through a photo published in a report by Vice and a deportation to the United States in 2012, after being arrested while trying to illegally enter Guatemala. McAfee’s involvement in Faull’s death, however, was never confirmed and not even a $ 25 million damage lawsuit filed by the victim’s family was never paid, lapsing after the entrepreneur’s death. which has always claimed to have no funds. . to cover the value.
Antibiotics, methamphetamines and other activities
Antivirus branding was only the most successful business of John McAfee’s career, but it was far from the only one. All his life he developed messaging apps, software that gave direct access to the permissions of each app installation on Android, and was appointed director of an investor who later became involved in the cryptocurrency market.
QuorumEx, however, proved to be the most controversial. Officially, the company founded in February 2010 was focused on developing antibiotics with natural ingredients found in Belize. The idea was to inhibit the proliferation of bacteria in the human body by preventing them from identifying their cell density in the body.
An investigation that led to forays into the lab and the McAfee home indicated a possible use of the labs for the production of methamphetamines. Again, he accused the authorities of engaging in a plot with large pharmaceutical companies who were uncomfortable with the development of his antibiotics. He was arrested at the time for possessing an unregistered firearm and accused the police of shooting and killing one of his dogs.
The tax is theft!
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In another of McAfee’s many problems with international law, he became a fugitive from justice in the United States in 2019 after being charged and convicted of tax evasion. He was a notorious opponent of paying taxes, claiming in interviews that he had spent the previous 10 years without declaring a single cent to the government of his home country.
For this he declared that he lived on a boat in international waters, where it would be out of the reach of the law and, also, of extradition policies on American soil. This phase, however, lasted just over a year, with McAfee is arrested in Spain in October 2020 and remaining in prison until June of the following year, when he was found dead.
Death and more conspiracy
Warning: This topic contains triggers for suicide and abuse.
John McAfee’s life was troubled and, of course, his disappearance wasn’t going to be easy either. The businessman’s body was found in his cellin a prison on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​Spain, a few hours after the country’s justice had authorized his extradition to the United States, so that he could answer for the crime of tax evasion.
The autopsy confirmed the death by hanging and the case was filed as a suicide. However, the then-wife of the entrepreneur, Janice McAfee, accused the US authorities of being involved in his death and demanded an investigation from the Spanish government, while the expert’s attorney said he never expressed l intention to make an attempt on his own life.
Meanwhile, on the Internet, they echoed theories about a burned file, comparisons between the death of John McAfee and tycoon Jeffrey Epstein, and mysterious posts on his profile on Instagram, hours after his death, which would be linked to the QAnon conspiracy group. In the past the same expert would have said that there would have been something suspicious if he were one day found dead by hanging; an investigation concluded in 2022 by the Spanish authorities confirmed the death by suicide.
The origins of the genius
John McAfee’s name has emerged in the spotlight heavily linked to digital security, but before that he has been involved in other major projects and had a stint at renowned companies. Early in his career, he worked as a software developer and architect for companies such as XeroxComputer Sciences Corporation, Univac and Lockheed, where he had his first contact with a computer virus.
However, one of the jobs he was most proud of came first when he started his career as a programmer at NASA’s Institute for Space Studies. Between 1968 and 1970 he contributed to the final stages of the Apollo program after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a major in complex problems.
Separation from one’s name
During his time at the aerospace company Lockheed, McAfee came into contact with Brain, one of the first viruses created for the PC. It was the spark for the development of VirusScan, the first commercial antivirus launched in the world and also one of the first software distributed over the Internet, in 1987, at the dawn of the network.
The absolute success, with millions of copies sold, earned his company $ 5 million a year, which led to a public offering of shares in 1992. The following year, John McAfee stepped down as the executive chair of the company. and moved on to the role of CTO. In 1994, he finally sold his stake in McAfee Associates and ceased to be a full-time member of the company.
16 years later, the company would be acquired by Intel in a $ 7.6 billion deal. In 2014, the withdrawal of the surname from the safety product line has been announced, which would be marketed as Intel Security. McAfee publicly thanked the move and said he was relieved that his identity would finally be dissociated from what he considered “the worst software on the planet”.
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This happened, of course, not without a good deal of controversy, with the entrepreneur who launched, in 2013, video where I taught how to uninstall antivirus and other McAfee security solutions as he appears surrounded by women and drugs. He said the products were bulky and purposely hampered the normal functioning of operating systems, forcing users and businesses to perform unnecessary updates.
It didn’t last long, though. In 2016, Intel backtracked on its initiative to integrate security products into its software offering and separated from the company, which it returned to serve independently and using the McAfee name that remains to this day, working in collaboration with Google and being partially controlled by various entities and investors, including the governments of Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
John McAfee for the president
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There are so many stories that no one was surprised when, already involved in various legal problems, John McAfee announced his candidacy for the US presidency in the 2016 election. Initially, he will run for the newly founded Cyber ​​Party before joining the Libertarian Party. He did not race, finishing second in the primary and third at the party convention, which eventually elected Gary Johnson to the race, getting 3.3% of the popular vote.
In 2019, McAfee launched another campaign, with the intention of running for elections the following year. He did it directly from the boat he lived on, in international waters, while he was on the run from US government taxes; he withdrew from the race in March 2020, not before attempting the post of vice president of two candidates of the Liberal Party.
Control over your story
In the face of so many results, controversial opinions and changes, John McAfee wanted to have control over how his story was told. This led him to, in 2013, he signs a deal with Warner Bros., selling the rights to his own life to the studio, so that it can be made into a movie.
In the same year, the production company announced the production of a film based on John McAfee’s Last Stand, biography published in 2013 by Wired, still unpublished in Brazil. A director duo has even been announced, with John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (Infallible love) also took care of the script, but the project never got off the ground.
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Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
