Something which confuses me about the pharma sites is that most of the pills being sold seem pretty obscure, yet they clearly managed to earn a fortune
He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
61–70 of 118 posts
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dunno. My personal opinion is that humans to some extent are innately good, and that it's the broken ones who turn to crime. Furthermore it's the EXTREMELY broken ones that become the crime lords etc. and those people often have massive flaws in their character such as the arrogance you described. Basically I don't think he could've ever accomplished what he did if he wasn't arrogant and wreckless to his core.
> ...it's the broken ones who turn to crime. If law were derived from universal morals (heh...) then that might be accurate. But due to the relatively arbitrariness of whether or not someone is a criminal, especially with respect to the great variety of countries in which virtually all of HN would be criminals for freely speaking about various topics, I think it's a bit presumption and mean to call those who "turn to…
>If law were derived from universal morals (heh...) then that might be accurate.
Well, there's a pretty big difference between "I shouldn't get arrested for smoking pot" and "I shouldn't get arrested for murdering rival pot dealers."
Maybe western law is mostly derived from a sensible universal moralism with certain exceptions. That doesn't mean that all criminality is rational or that the OP's opinion that most criminals are irrational is wrong. For every Robin Hood there's hundreds of thousands of street thugs. I think you're overpleading the edge cases here. Many studies have shown your average criminal to be a fairly messed up individual: mental illness, strong personality faults, poor reasoning skills, poor executive control, poor discipline, etc.
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#63Halfway to the airport, however, Le Roux switched tactics, said Stouch. “He just essentially said he was no longer going to resist and that he would cooperate with our commands.” According to the DEA, Le Roux waived his Miranda rights somewhere over the Atlantic and agreed to tell them everything he knew. What miraculous luck that such a thing would happen, purely of his own free will.
Pretty interesting interpretation of free will - and for that matter, luck.
Pretty sure parent was sarcastic (or something).
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#64Weight of 342 bars of gold would be 4255-kg (9381-lb)... ...find it hard to believe the carrying capacity of an average taxi would support this.
In Hong Kong 1 kilo bars are very popular. From the article: acquired $30 million in one-kilogram gold bars from Metalor Technologies
He also had other assets like gems.
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#65Weight of 342 bars of gold would be 4255-kg (9381-lb)... ...find it hard to believe the carrying capacity of an average taxi would support this.
Elsewhere the article described him buying up "1-kilogram" bars. I don't know where you would get such a thing (I'm not in the gold market), but this does make more sense with the figure of $20M dollars (although it still works out to gold at $1800/troy oz.).
It's still a great deal of mass, and I definitely wouldn't put it in the trunk of a cab, but it sounds at least almost plausible, especially if the taxi is a van or SUV.
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#66Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#67> “He got greedy,” Jody continued. “He probably could have closed up shop in 2006 or 2007, been a rich millionaire, and never have been investigated at all.” This does seem to be a common thread with highly skilled and intelligent criminals. Their pride convinces them they can keep going when the truth is it is time to pull the ripcord years before they got caught and walk away with all the wealth a person would ever…
It's the common thread among those that get caught . What's to say how many there are that do retire as millionaires before getting caught?
Exactly
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ...it's the broken ones who turn to crime. If law were derived from universal morals (heh...) then that might be accurate. But due to the relatively arbitrariness of whether or not someone is a criminal, especially with respect to the great variety of countries in which virtually all of HN would be criminals for freely speaking about various topics, I think it's a bit presumption and mean to call those who "turn to…
>If law were derived from universal morals (heh...) then that might be accurate. Well, there's a pretty big difference between "I shouldn't get arrested for smoking pot" and "I shouldn't get arrested for murdering rival pot dealers." Maybe western law is mostly derived from a sensible universal moralism with certain exceptions. That doesn't mean that all criminality is rational or that the OP's opinion that most crim…
Is there a meta-analysis that corroborates your last claim?
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ...it's the broken ones who turn to crime. If law were derived from universal morals (heh...) then that might be accurate. But due to the relatively arbitrariness of whether or not someone is a criminal, especially with respect to the great variety of countries in which virtually all of HN would be criminals for freely speaking about various topics, I think it's a bit presumption and mean to call those who "turn to…
Good points. I'll add that the majority of his funds came from illegal pharmacy that was selling drugs people could get from local doctors but might be turned down. To put that into perspective: 1. It's legal to get the drug if a single doctor agrees you need it, you can afford to pay them, and you can afford to pay for the drug. 2. It's illegal to get the drug if Le Roux's doctors do it with their methods at probabl…
They mentioned in the article how they wrote it up as providing prescripted medication without a client-doctor relationship. The likelihood of someone buying these drugs for the purposes of abuse are likely much greater than some poor person looking for their brain medication.
The fact that the government later made one of the drugs being sold a controlled substance gives credence to such a theory.
Whether or not that says anything about the morality of law, I'll leave up to you.
Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux
#70Among the most closely-guarded troves of knowledge in the world are those pertaining to organized crime. This stuff is so dramatic and interesting because it is sort of "forbidden knowledge". I have high hopes for Quora (one of the YC portfolio companies) because they are trying to make accessible this sort of locked-up knowledge.
Well, to continue reading, you'll have to log in, however.
Unless it's been changed recently, just add ?share=1 to the end of a Quora link.