The Mastermind
by Evan Ratliff · first published 2019
12mentions
4recommended by
12HN commenters
2019–2026first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
"The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux--the creator of a powerful Internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. It all started as an online prescription drug network, supplying hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of painkillers to American customers. It would not stop there. Before long, the business had turned into a sprawling multinational conglomerate engaged in almost every conceivable aspect of criminal mayhem. Yachts carrying $100 million in cocaine. Safe houses
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Why do you say obviously? I am really curious why Le Roux has been ruled out even by the author of the book about him "The Mastermind" by Evan Ratliff - quite a good read. Le Roux seemed like a good candidate to be Satoshi - a Windows C++ programmer with serious crypto knowledge(most other crypto oldschoolers were on Linux/BSD), as…
on “$570M worth of Binance’s BNB token stolen” ↗Not sure if you know the history behind it, but look up Paul Le Roux Also would recommend the book called The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff
on “FBI couldn't get into WaPo reporter's iPhone because Lockdown Mode enabled” ↗It is - he's on a press tour for his book Mastermind which I just started and is good so far https://www.amazon.com/Mastermind-Drugs-Empire-Murder-Betray... There is also a competing book that just came out called Hunting LeRoux: https://www.amazon.com/Hunting-LeRoux-Inside-Takedown-Crimin...…
on “Inverview with Evan Ratliff, author of The Mastermind” ↗You should definitely check “The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal.” by Evan Ratliff. Fascinating story.
on “Ask HN: More Bad Blood?” ↗…Related: He Always Had a Dark Side - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11381625 - Mar 2016 (351 comments) Reply All episode: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/dvhd9k/136-the-found... The Mastermind: A True Story of Murder, Empire, and a New Kind of Crime Lord By Evan Ratliff https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549566/the-mastermi... https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20162630W/The_Mastermind
on “Paul Le Roux (Wikipedia)” ↗Reminds me of Evan Ratliff's The Mastermind [0] about Paul Le Roux building an illegal online pharmacy and how eventually he was caught. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41181600-the-mastermind
on “So, you want to be a darknet drug lord” ↗It's not an original idea. It was popularized a few years ago by Evan Ratliff, author of a book about Paul Le Roux, 'The Mastermind' Convenient for the author to discover the link to Le Roux. Then talk about it on podcasts while promoting his book, and have articles written about him. All Shkreli does is promote himself to get eyes…
on “Martin Shkreli Reveals Paul Le Roux Is Satoshi Nakamoto?” ↗Here's at least one book on him: The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. by Evan Ratliff. Another is: Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire by Elaine Shannon. Michael Mann has the rights…
on “Martin Shkreli Reveals Paul Le Roux Is Satoshi Nakamoto?” ↗I don't think Le Roux ever lived in the Netherlands. He had or has children and an ex-wife who live there, though. later edit: the word "bitcoin" appears only once in The Mastermind. Ratliff says he was emailed many times by people who believed Le Roux was Satoshi. He spent "countless hours" investigating the claim and found no evidence of any connection.
on “New Evidence Suggests Satoshi Nakamoto Is Paul Le Roux” ↗…someone that wants to quickly get to the action: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Le_Roux > In 2019, Evan Ratliff—who wrote a series of articles about Le Roux for The Atavist Magazine—published The Mastermind, a 446-page account of Le Roux's ventures. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549566/the-mastermi...
on “RIAA’s YouTube-dl takedown ticks off developers and GitHub’s CEO” ↗…apparently there's a film on Le Roux in the making by Michael Mann ("Miami Vice", "Collateral", "Black Hat"), which is not based on the Evan Ratliff reporting (Atavist Magazine and later the book "The Mastermind", cf. the original HN discussion from 2016), but a different book from NY Times author Elaine Shannon.
on “Paul Le Roux” ↗…time to time. Le Roux's RX Limited in particular was running hundreds of millions of dollars per year. [1] Some estimates put his take at $400M total. [2] I bet Ratliff has some specific estimates in Mastermind. [1] https://www.dw.com/en/from-programmer-to-gangster-boss-the-u... [2] https://www.startribune.com/how-minnesota-agents-helped-find...
on “Sildenafil as a candidate drug for Alzheimer’s disease” ↗