After making a fortune with his early antivirus software, then being caught up in murder and drugs cases in Belize, US millionaire John McAfee has now added a new chapter to his tumultuous life story: from a yacht in Havana harbor, he says he is running for the US presidency. 

This will not, he deadpans, be "an ordinary campaign."

"I am wanted as a criminal by the government for which I am running for president," McAfee, 73, tells AFP as he sits surrounded on his white yacht by an entourage of seven campaign aides and two enormous dogs. 

McAfee's immediate goal is to win the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party, which advocates for free trade and a sharply reduced federal government. 

He tried but failed in 2016, edged out for that party's nomination by Gary Johnson, who went on to win just over three percent of the vote in the general election.

But McAfee has an unusual confession for a presidential candidate: "I don't want to be president, I really don't, nor could I be," he says, puffing on a cigar.

"However, I do have a large following, and I will influence this next election."

Since making a fortune with his eponymous antivirus software in the 1980s, McAfee has become a self-styled cryptocurrency guru, claiming to make $2,000 a day. He has one million followers on Twitter.

His yacht, docked at the Marina Hemingway in Havana, is named The Great Mystery - appropriately for this enigmatic man of 73.

McAfee sold his company  in 2010 and is now worth an estimated $100 million.

AFP