The story about tech’s most notorious figure, John McAfee, gets stranger and stranger, as his biographer claims he died penniless, blowing a $100 million fortune on various “bizarre” mansions around the world, many of which he never set foot in.
Mark Eglinton collaborated with McAfee on a forthcoming biography, starting in August 2019. He interviewed the controversial tech titan for “countless hours” and what emerged was a man so broke, he couldn’t even stump up a modest advance for the writer.
He spent millions on houses in Belize, Texas, Colorado, Hawaii and Tennessee, and was hard hit by the 2008 GFC.
“I don’t doubt that if he could have helped he would have,” Eglinton said of the book advance. “He said, ‘I can’t do it, my financial situation is worse than yours.
“We got a lot into where he spent his money over the years. … He had his money in very safe investments, but he built houses, absolutely bizarre properties. Some of them, he never slept a night in the property.”
One compound, built in Colorado for $25 million, was sold at auction for $5.72.
“The $100 million I got out of McAfee [Antivirus], that goes very quickly,” he told the biographer.
No Domain: The John McAfee Tapes will come out in December.
