If you are a computer user you may have heard of the McAfee Virus Scan, one of the first anti-virus programs for personal computers. That company still holds a fair chunk of the anti-virus market but its owner John McAfee is living in Belize. And he's angry about a feature which was recently done on him in a US Magazine called Fast Company. The article alleged that he bribed the Belizean Coast Guard with the donation of a boat. That article was reprinted in Friday's Amandala, and today after returning from the United States, he challenged what was reported.

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"Most of them are extremely ridiculous including for example that the boat that I donated to the Coast Guard last year on the 13th of January was a bribe to get the Coast Guard to stop hassling my ferry business which is Coastal Express. However, I donated that boat on the 13th of January. The Coastal Express was not started until October of that same year. So the business did not even exist at the time that they alleged that I gave the bribe."

"The second thing they allege is that I bribed police to ignore a seawall in front of my house that was built. But that seawall existed at the time that I moved in 2.5 years ago. It was built by Mr. Matt Miller 5 years ago and I had nothing to do with that. So what has happened here is that I am starting a company called Quorum X using native plants of Belize to create antibiotics using a brand new method which has just been discovered in the past few years. I think the question needs to be asked of Fast Company Magazine which pharmaceutical company they are working with to create stories like this. Because if I succeed in what I am doing here in Belize then it will put many of these large international companies out of business.

Jules Vasquez Reporting
"In the article, it alleges that the priority area of research is in fact a female form of Viagra.

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"And you see, that again is utter nonsense. At no point have we ever worked on a female Viagra. Our entire focus of research is on antibiotics using native plants here in Belize."

Jules Vasquez Reporting
"Sir, you realize that it sounds conspiratorial and slightly mawkishly conspiratorial when you say that Merck is out to get me. Glaxo-Welcome…"

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"Well, I don't know who is out to get me but you should ask Fast Company to check the facts for example specifically it states that I bribed the Coast Guard to stop harrassing my ferry company by giving them a boat. My ferry company did not exist when I gave the Coast Guard the boat. It's fabrication. You can check it out. You yourself reported on me giving the boat to the Coast Guard on January 13th and I believe there was a blurb in the Amandala and on every newspaper in San Pedro when I started Coastal Express in October. How could I bribe someone in January to stop harassing me in October?"

Jules Vasquez Reporting
"But you can pre-purchase consideration."

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"But why would I do that? It's a ferry company. IT's a company that operates exclusively in San Pedro. It's not like it makes millions of dollars a year."

Jules Vasquez Reporting
"This article has been floating around for a while and you didn't feel it necessary to say anything until it was published in the Amandala."

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"And why would I? I don't live in America. I live here. My neighbours, I have to have dinner with them and talk to them and the work that we're doing is in Belize. It's not in America."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, the perception one concludes or one draws about you when reading the article is that you are a deliberately duplicitious person. It says in the article that you intentionally post inaccurate information about your whereabouts, your immigration status on facebook and on other social networking outlets, in order to intentionally obfuscate your location, your identity, your situation. So then, if those things are true, why should we believe you now?"

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"To use what a person puts up on facebook, which is a site for friends. Facebook is a place where friends get together and meet, where we all play jokes on one another, where we all paste facetious photos of ourselves in wigs and so on as some suggestion that the person is duplicitous is unfair. There have to be some aspects of our personal life that we can have fun in and joke with our friends."

Jules Vasquez
"Reading the article, one gets the impression that you are broke or at least trying to give the impression that you are broke but those I have spoken to in San Pedro say that you are loaded."

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"Well, it depends what loaded means. I still consider myself loaded but nowhere near as loaded as I was 4 or 5 years ago."

Jules Vasquez
"Will you be seeking legal redress against those who published the article?"

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"Of course not. I don't think that solves anything."

Jules Vasquez
"It might make you some money, not locally but internationally."

John McAfee, Anti-virus Software Pioneer
"Well, it will make the lawyers some money. I don't think it will make anyone else any money."

McAfee lives on the north end of San Pedro.