4 ms·

By "arms dealer" do they mean "kind of sketchy online pharmacy entrepreneur"? Because I didn't see anything about weapons in this article. Perhaps that's still

By "arms dealer" do they mean "kind of sketchy online pharmacy entrepreneur"? Because I didn't see anything about weapons in this article. Perhaps that's still to come in part 2, but as of right now the title is extremely linkbaity. EDIT: title has been unlinkbaitified (previously "Truecrypt was written by a international arms dealer") EDIT2: title has been reverted to the linkbaity version (previously changed to the original title "He Always Had a Dark Side")

Nickoladze 11y ago
His name seems to be quite well known at this point, lots of stories about him cooperating with US feds in 2014-2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/in-real-life-rambo-ends-up-as-a-soldier-of-misfortune-behind-bars.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/in-real-life-ra... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/us-reveals-criminal-bosss-role-in-capturing-a-mercenary.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/us-reveals-crimin...
- pakled_engineer 11y ago
  He's pretty much a Bond villain from those articles, like the UN claiming he funded militias in Somalia to harvest hallucinogenic plants and shipping arms to Liberia. Probably would've made the same amount of money charging for TC premium support instead of building a pancontinental empire of mercenaries and arms trafficking.
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    Lord of War taught us such people won't enter such businesses because the "margins are too small." I'd also guess it's not as exciting and brings in less attention from the ladies.
  - bithush 11y ago
    I think you underestimate how much can be made from arms trafficking!
    - nxzero 11y ago
      Clearly the US makes a massive amount of cash selling weapons; yes, US is not an "arms dealer" - but likely comparable.
      - spacehome 11y ago
        > US is not an "arms dealer" > the US makes a massive amount of cash selling weapons DOES NOT COMPUTE
        nxzero 11y ago
        It is semantics, illegal arms trafficking is a subset of the global market for arms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_trafficking https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_trafficking
        spacehome 11y ago
        nxzero said nothing about legality.
        nxzero 11y ago
        Given he's called a "criminal kingpin" and compared to Viktor Bout, the merchant of death, pretty safe to assume he wasn't selling weapons legally.
        spacehome 11y ago
        I quoted you talking about the U.S.!
        nxzero 11y ago
        Then, I don't understand what you're comment means. Happy to respond again if you'd clarify want you intended.
mikeyouse 11y ago
> Perhaps that's still to come in part 2 This article is actually part 3, the first two detail his arms dealing a little bit, but like someone else mentioned, he's a very well-known arms dealer with direct links to several murders. Part 1: https://mastermind.atavist.com/an-arrogant-way-of-killing https://mastermind.atavist.com/an-arrogant-way-of-killing
sophacles 11y ago
Note, this is part 3 already - parts 1 and 2 lay out more of the story.

Nickoladze 11y ago

His name seems to be quite well known at this point, lots of stories about him cooperating with US feds in 2014-2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/in-real-life-rambo-ends-up-as-a-soldier-of-misfortune-behind-bars.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/asia/in-real-life-ra... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/us-reveals-criminal-bosss-role-in-capturing-a-mercenary.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/nyregion/us-reveals-crimin...

pakled_engineer 11y ago
He's pretty much a Bond villain from those articles, like the UN claiming he funded militias in Somalia to harvest hallucinogenic plants and shipping arms to Liberia. Probably would've made the same amount of money charging for TC premium support instead of building a pancontinental empire of mercenaries and arms trafficking.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  Lord of War taught us such people won't enter such businesses because the "margins are too small." I'd also guess it's not as exciting and brings in less attention from the ladies.
- bithush 11y ago
  I think you underestimate how much can be made from arms trafficking!
  - nxzero 11y ago
    Clearly the US makes a massive amount of cash selling weapons; yes, US is not an "arms dealer" - but likely comparable.
    - spacehome 11y ago
      > US is not an "arms dealer" > the US makes a massive amount of cash selling weapons DOES NOT COMPUTE
      - nxzero 11y ago
        It is semantics, illegal arms trafficking is a subset of the global market for arms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_trafficking https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_trafficking
        spacehome 11y ago
        nxzero said nothing about legality.
        nxzero 11y ago
        Given he's called a "criminal kingpin" and compared to Viktor Bout, the merchant of death, pretty safe to assume he wasn't selling weapons legally.
        spacehome 11y ago
        I quoted you talking about the U.S.!
        nxzero 11y ago
        Then, I don't understand what you're comment means. Happy to respond again if you'd clarify want you intended.

mikeyouse 11y ago

> Perhaps that's still to come in part 2 This article is actually part 3, the first two detail his arms dealing a little bit, but like someone else mentioned, he's a very well-known arms dealer with direct links to several murders. Part 1: https://mastermind.atavist.com/an-arrogant-way-of-killing https://mastermind.atavist.com/an-arrogant-way-of-killing

sophacles 11y ago

Note, this is part 3 already - parts 1 and 2 lay out more of the story.