Founder of McAfee virus company wrapped up in murder investigation

John McAfee, the eccentric internet entrepreneur who founded his namesake anti-virus company, is now reportedly implicated in a murder investigation.

It’s been a tumultuous –and strange – few years for the entrepreneur. He reportedly lost most of his $100 million fortune during the global financial crisis and earlier this year was arrested for alleged drug manufacturing – although all the charges were later dropped.

McAfee is a potential suspect in the murder of American expat Gregory Faull, who according to Gizmodo had previously filed a complaint against McAfee for “roguish behaviour”.

The publication quotes the head of Central American country Belize’s Gang Suppression Unit, Marco Vidal, as saying McAfee is wanted for involvement in the murder.

A statement from the police states the 52-year-old Gregory Faull was found with a gunshot wound to the head in his San Pedro Town home, while his laptop computer and iPhone were missing.

McAfee’s alleged involvement is just another example of his increasingly erratic behaviour.

But as this piece in Gizmodo explains, John McAfee has been exhibiting strange behaviour for quite some time. He lives in Belize in a compound, hires his own security guards and owns a wide array of weapons.

He also describes becoming increasingly involved in the Belize gang world.

“Everyone who has tried to rob me, kill me, works for me now,” he told the publication. And while reports had pinned McAfee as losing most of his $100 million fortune, he also claimed these were “not accurate at all”.

McAfee has spent time on chat rooms and message boards posting about his plans to purify certain types of hallucinogenic drugs. He’s also become increasingly paranoid about his security, registering his computers under different names and changing IP addresses several times.

McAfee first started in the anti-virus business in the late 1980s, but has also worked in various other software ventures.