Maverick Tech Veteran John McAfee (Anti-Virus Mogul) Has Confirmed He Is Running For US President.

 Mr McAfee, who founded an anti-virus company of the same name, filed a candidacy statement on Tuesday.

The US entrepreneur, 69, attracted international attention when he went on the run in 2012 following the murder of his neighbour in Belize.

He has launched a campaign website and will share more details about his candidacy later.

Drink and drugs

Mr McAfee found fame when he launched his anti-malware company in 1987, but he resigned from the company in 1994.

Intel later bought the company, in which Mr McAfee no longer held shares, for more than $7.6bn (£4.7bn).

However, it is his private life – including much publicised battles with drink and drugs – that has attracted most attention.

In November 2012, he went on the run in Belize after the murder of his neighbour, Gregory Faull, an Orlando sports bar owner.

Mr McAfee, who was never declared a suspect, said he feared he would be “silenced” if he was caught and thrown in jail.

He eventually crossed the border into Guatemala, where he was arrested and then deported to the US.

At the time, Dean Barrow, Belize’s Prime Minister, said Mr McAfee had only been classed a “person of interest”.

“I don’t want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers,” the politician added.

‘Cyber Party’

Mr McAfee told Wired on Tuesday he had been mulling a presidential run for some time.

“I have many thousands of emails saying, ‘Please run for president.’ It’s not something I would just choose to do on my own,” he said.

He is yet to give details about his policies but said technology would form a key plank of the campaign.

Recent hacks of the US Office of Personnel Management and Homeland Security showed US leaders were out of touch, he said.

“Things like this cannot happen or should not happen,” he told Wired.

“It’s clear that the leadership of our country is illiterate on the fundamental technology that supports everything in life for us now, that is cyber-science, our smartphones, our military hardware, our communications.”

Mr McAfee’s campaign manager confirmed that his party would be known as the “Cyber Party”.

On his Twitter feed, Mr McAfee promised to make an official announcement about his run on Wednesday at 23:00 BST.