As a gaggle of media waited near several exit doors at the airport
Wednesday night, federal authorities whisked the founder of McAfee
anti-virus software off the plane and into a van.
"They said, 'Mr. McAfee, please step forward,'" McAfee, 67, later told
ABC News exclusively overnight at a Miami Beach hotel. "I was met by a
dozen or maybe fewer officers. I said, 'Am I arrested?' They said, 'No,
sir, I am here to help you.' That felt the best of all."
He eventually snuck out of the airport in a cab and headed to South
Beach. After walking down famed Ocean Drive to the bewilderment of
tourists and eating sushi, his first meal in three days, he sat down
with ABC News and admitted to playing the "crazy card" and says he is
broke.
"I have nothing now," McAfee said. He claims he left everything behind
in Belize, including $20 million in investments and about 15 properties.
"I've got a pair of clothes and shoes, my friend dropped off some
cash."
Just hours earlier, the self-made millionaire was deported by Guatemalan
police who forced him aboard his U.S.-bound flight away from the home
and the two women he said he loves. After he arrived on South Beach, he
said, a mysterious "Canadian friend" ordered another man he'd never met
to drop off a wad of fresh $5 bills that McAfee later displayed to ABC
News, pulling them from his coat pocket.
He says he left his fortune, including a beachfront compound, behind
after his neighbor Greg Faull was found shot to death in Belize on Nov.
10.
Belize officials said he isn't a suspect, but when they asked to question him, McAfee disguised himself and ran.
After three weeks ducking authorities in Belize, by hiding in attics, in
the jungle and in dingy hotels, he turned up in Guatemala Dec. 3.
Barely a day later he was detained for entering the country illegally.
As Guatemala officials grappled with how to handle his request for
asylum and the Belize government's demand for his deportation, McAfee
fell ill. The mysterious illness, described by his attorney alternately
as a heart ailment or a nervous breakdown, led to a scene with reporters
chasing his ambulance down the narrow streets of Guatemala City and
right into the emergency room, where McAfee appeared unresponsive.
He now says it was all a ruse:
"It was a deception but who did it hurt? I look pretty healthy, don't I?"
He says he faked the illness in order to buy some time for a judge to
hear his case and stay his deportation to Belize, a government he
believes wants him dead. When asked whether he believes Belize officials
where inept, he didn't mince words.
"I was on the run with a 20-year-old girl for three and a half weeks
inside their borders and everyone was looking for me, and they did not
catch me," he said. "I escaped, was captured and they tried to send me
back. Now I'm sitting in Miami. There had to be some ineptness."
The man who many believe only wants attention answered critics who
called his month-long odyssey and blog posts a publicity stunt by simply
saying, "What's a better story, millionaire mad man on the run. 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."
He denies any involvement in his neighbor's death but adds that he is
not particularly concerned about clearing his name. He is focused on
getting his 20-year-old and 17-year-old girlfriends out of Belize and
says he has no idea what he'll do next, where he'll live or how he'll
support himself.
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