Authorities in Puerto Plata arrested John David McAfee, his wife and four people that accompanied them, early this week. They were on board the yacht, “The Great Mystery” that docked at the Ocean World Marina in Cofresí. They carried several high caliber weapons and thousands of US dollars. With McAfee was his wife Elizabeth McAfee (Janice), UK citizen Richard Alan Gibson, German Robert Whitfield, Bahamian Oral Thompson, Haitian Vasner and dog Axel. Reports are that they arrived from the Hemingway Marina in Havana, Cuba.
The 73-year old McAfee is best known for developing the McAfee antivirus software in the 1980s and for helping to pioneer instant-messaging in the 1990s. McAfee is a British-US citizen. He has been on the run living in Cuba, Bahamas and Belize. As reported, US federal law enforcement agents were on his trail for tax evasion and other allegations.
McAfee was accused by Belize authorities to be the lead suspect in the murder of his neighbor in Belize, Gregory Faull.
Cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee has said he fears for his life and is on the run after claiming the US government is out to get him. As reported in El Dia, McAfee had threatened in a Tweet in June 2019 that if he is arrested more than 31 terabytes of incriminatory data would be leaked with names and details on acts of corruption of US government related to foreign governments.
In a latter development, Diario Libre reported that McAfee was released. This was confirmed on McAfee’s Twitter account. He said the Dominican authorities treated him well. Puerto Plata prosecutor Osvaldo Bonilla told Diario Libre the case was directly handled by the Attorney General Office in the National District.
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Diario Libre
Puerto Plata Digital
El Dia
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Independent UK
ABC News
El Dia
25 July 2019