McAfee boasts of eluding “inept” Belize police and fooling Guat officials, but now faces an expensive lawsuit in the US, about a man’s death
Antivirus pioneer John McAfee, 67, on the run from Belize police since the murder of his San Pedro neighbor and fellow American, Gregory Faull, on Sunday, November 11, gleefully reported from Miami on Wednesday night that he had fooled the Belize police, who he said were “inept,” and duped officials in Guatemala into admitting him to a hospital there on a fake heart attack report.
McAfee later admitted that he had faked the heart attack to buy his lawyers time to contest the effort by Belizean authorities to have him returned to Belize, because he was a “person of interest” in the murder of Faull.
For the past month McAfee has been one of the most talked about personalities in the media, blogging racy stories of his escapades, along with his 20-year-old Teakettle girlfriend, in avoiding the clumsy Belize police. Apart from denying that he killed Faull, McAfee kept insisting that Belize police wanted to kill him.
He escaped San Pedro Ambergris Caye, crossed over to the mainland, and then reached Guatemala reportedly on Monday, December 3, seeking asylum there, as Belize doesn’t have an extradition treaty with that country.
Although Belize authorities made it clear that they only wanted to talk to McAfee, he said he still feared returning to Belize.
Safe in the US, McAfee said that he left “his fortune and a beachfront property” in Belize.
“I am broke …I have nothing now,” McAfee claimed.
He admitted that he had told a lot of lies and spun tall and colorful tales. He also thanked the social media, saying that they saved his life (from the Belize police): “You [the media] saved my ass. Because you paid attention to the story. As long as you are reporting, it is hard to whack somebody that the world is watching.”
Raphael Martinez, Police Press Officer, Ministry of National Security, told Amandala via telephone that McAfee’s deportation does not affect his being wanted for questioning in connection with the death of his neighbor, Gregory Faull.
Martinez said that the authorities will still seek to question McAfee through the United States authorities, but will not request his extradition.
“He is only wanted for questioning. He is not a criminal, so extradition is totally out of the equation,” Martinez said.
Amandala was also told by Martinez that the investigation into Faull’s death will continue.
“At this time, no suspect has been detained, but it is an ongoing case and definitely won’t be abandoned,” he said. “The police are still investigating the case.”
Martinez also told Amandala that the Police Department does not know exactly how McAfee left San Pedro, and has no information about what will happen to McAfee’s property on San Pedro.
The Mail Online of today, Thursday, however, reported that just hours after McAfee arrived on U.S soil, he faces a $5m lawsuit over the death of a businessman in Arizona. A major reason McAfee set up his eccentric life in Belize in 2007, said the Mail Online, was to avoid a potentially expensive court case over the killing of Robert Gilson, 61, in a small aircraft in Arizona a year earlier.
“Gilson’s family blame McAfee for the horrific crash of the married father-of-three who was taking lessons in “aerotrekking,” a sport that McAfee invented himself, and involves flying a trike with an engine at speeds of 75mph.
The wrongful death lawsuit alleges that McAfee hired his 22-year-old nephew, Joel Bitow, as flight instructor even though he didn’t possess the right qualifications. Bitow then took Gilson to one of the most dangerous parts of the canyon in Arizona where they suddenly lost control and went into a spiral dive to their deaths.
After the crash, McAfee sold his 280-acre Woodland Park, in Colorado, a Hawaiian beachfront home and a string of other properties and set up in Belize – he and his money safe outside any U.S. court jurisdiction,” the Mail said.