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He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

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Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#91

Post by stcredzero »

drjesusphd wrote: post #84
stcredzero wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal opinion is that humans to some extent are innately good I agree. 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. If you examine crime lords and their activities and morality, then compare them with world leaders from before 1800, then you will find that the behavior they exhibit is fairly comm…

Why do you think world leaders before 1800 are significanly different than the ones since?

I don't, really. There isn't a sudden demarcation. It's more of a gradual shift. If you go back in time before then, you're predating the enlightenment. Democratic revolutions will be following the example of the British Colonies after that point.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#92

Post by nickpsecurity »

bruckie wrote: post #75
nickpsecurity wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus them storing them in bags and carrying them so much. I can't recall if the gold bars can come in more convenient sizes and weights vs standard ones that are heavy . This was also a counterpoint in arguments against Book of Mormon discovery given calculations showed it was over 1,000lbs. Truly a miracle to get that sucker from point A to point B.

> arguments against Book of Mormon discovery given calculations showed it was over 1,000lbs [citation needed] This document catalogs historical statements about the physical characteristics of the Book of Mormon: https://ojs.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/JBMRS/article/download... Summary: even if it were a solid block of pure gold, it would only weigh ~200 lbs. However, there's no strong historical evidence that it was p…

Oops, you got me: another memory failure. Thanks for the catch. Yeah, a guy with a limp outrunning or fighting attackers carrying a book that weighs 200lbs. The 60lbs part is his and apologists "alloy" BS that's rejected by the book itself in Mosiah 8:9 where it says the plates are pure gold. So, it looks like a stretch unless the book is wrong.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#93

Post by nickpsecurity »

badloginagain wrote: post #69
nickpsecurity wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tha…

Probably. Doesn't invalidate my claim. There's all kinds of people who go to the doctor to get drugs like these because it feels better that way. They just have to pay more and get it from specific people for it to be legal. Their motives, the drugs themselves... all the same.

Let's take it further. The drug you need is a cancer treatment that costs $100,000. The drug itself was paid for with a mix of tax dollars and private R&D that resulted in a patent. The patent at this point has paid off its private R&D plus plenty of profit. A Chinese supplier can make the same ingredients with a Le Roux-like company selling it to you. It's illegal to acquire that as the law says you must die or make that drug company richer.

Is morality and the law in alignment when someone is being murdered for someone else to make extra money? Or for people to do time for trying to save their life with a clone?

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#94

Post by nickpsecurity »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #62
tetrep wrote: post #54

Earlier 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…

Alternatively, the law makes a distinction between types of harmful activity that are legal and types that are illegal with interesting results. The kind of very damaging activity smart, disciplined people do that ruins lives is often legal. These are [Wall] street thugs. Then, there's other types of harm the lesser people can pull off that are illegal. There's also stuff they do that doesn't harm other people but is severely illegal.

So, I don't think there's an average criminal given the variety of crimes, levels of harm, and criminals themselves. However, the average criminal on drugs in my area is a working class person who poses no threat to society but smokes weed on occasion. There's also a number of addicts who are similarly not a threat but will receive long sentences. There's also thugs who range from your description to well-educated people who say "screw being someone's b for minimum wage when I can be my own boss for $50k slinging this stuff!" On thugs, similar predatory behavior as many business owners except their type of harm is allowed and affects more people. Even when it's indirect murder.

What's law and what's ethical isn't the same. The law can enforce evil, stop good, and do arbitrary things hard to judge.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#95

Post by nickpsecurity »

fweespee_ch wrote: post #42
nickpsecurity wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My guess is if he stayed out of hard drugs, arms, etc. he might have also stayed completely safe because it sounds like they simply couldn't handle him until it got kicked to the FBI/DEA/etc." That's basically Ratliff's claim, too. He would've gotten away with it.

Correct. I'm just restating it because I find it amazing given what that implies for grey market and white collar crime. It is basically a public admission that the Government is completely ineffective with anything vaguely resembling a competent criminal. It makes me question if we are allocating law enforcement resources correctly. ----- Edit due to rate limit: > I know that sounds far-fetched. Our government emplo…

The funny thing is I was messing with you by citing the exact circumstances of the 2008 financial crisis that's still reported on periodically. I was thinking you'd catch that. Good to know that you've been seeing signs in other places, too, though. ;)

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#96

Post by fweespee_ch »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #95
fweespee_ch wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. I'm just restating it because I find it amazing given what that implies for grey market and white collar crime. It is basically a public admission that the Government is completely ineffective with anything vaguely resembling a competent criminal. It makes me question if we are allocating law enforcement resources correctly. ----- Edit due to rate limit: > I know that sounds far-fetched. Our government emplo…

The funny thing is I was messing with you by citing the exact circumstances of the 2008 financial crisis that's still reported on periodically. I was thinking you'd catch that. Good to know that you've been seeing signs in other places, too, though. ;)

I thought it was obvious enough I didn't feel the need to repeat it given how repetitive I was with the OP. ;)

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#97

Post by carboncopy »

celticninja wrote: post #73
badloginagain wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tha…

Marijuana is a schedule 1 drug and Methamphetamine is schedule 2. Alcohol and Nicotine are legal. Let's not pretend that there is logic behind the controlling of substances by government and law enforcement.

There is logic but is certainly not uniformly applied!

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#98

Post by carboncopy »

altotrees wrote: post #50
fweespee_ch wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How about "An arrogant way of living?" Haha. Yeah, it is amazing how much his arrogance and pride seemed to play into his behavior. He could have exited this whole situation in Brazil [Retiring] a wealthy man and would have been largely immune since they didn't have the ability to get their hands on him. > His OPSEC sucks. I mean, I'm amazed that he didn't get caught earlier in some unrelated investigation using hi…

>"He did it and nobody connected dots until piles of high risk crimes added up with benefit of easy tracing" All really good points. I found myself having to re-read the part where he was actually brought in by the authorities, thinking to myself how hard it would have to be to actually trace Le Roux the man. I wasn't fully expecting him to be captured until the next installment, actually. It just seems amazing for s…

To be fair to Le Roux, he switched to the methamphetamine/cocaine trade after his holdings in Hong Kong were seized. It's possible I misinterpreted the article, but it appeared to me that he was trying to recover his previous wealth. It seems like a psychologically normal thing for a multimillionaire who lost millions (but is still wildly wealthy) to attempt to restore that wealth.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#99

Post by carboncopy »

allenbrunson wrote: post #20
witty_username wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> essentially no way to detect duplicate submissions No, the shortened URL can be followed.

... and once it is followed, it is the true URL that should be displayed, because it contains more useful information for the end user, like the true domain where the article resides, instead of the alphabet soup you get with link shorteners. which, again, is why link shorteners are banned here. i probably shouldn't engage in arguing pointless minutiae like this. i will refrain after this one.

I think it's good to discuss HN social norms when it's appropriate. Your comment added to the discussion.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#100

Post by cornchips »

Altgeld Garden Drug Co was in the middle of an interesting location... One of two registered... Altgeld Gardens is one of "Chicago Housing Authority’s largest housing development."

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Altgeld Garden Drug Co., Chicago – pharmacy license (054-003512) revoked and Erskine A. Cartwright III, Chicago – pharmacist license (051-033091) suspended for 30 days followed by probation for two years after information came to the Department's attention that from on or about the Fall of 2006 continuing to on or about the summer of 2007, the pharmacy dispensed a substantial quantity of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, pursuant to orders received electronically issued by physicians for patients who are alleged to have ordered the drugs via the internet. Additionally, the Department was not notified 30 days in advance of the pharmacy's closing. [1]

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Street Address: 912 e 131st st, EVERGREEN PARK, Il 60805, US Website Address: RXINFODEPOT.COM^^VIAGRACHEAP.COM Company Email: gamble8@msn.com [2]

Now a thrift store: st vincent de paul... Le Roux :-P

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email above is associated with C-21 Dabbs & Associates [3]

maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.607956,-87.8476405,3a,50.4y,...

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"Mr. Erskine A. Cartwright entered into rest on Sunday, February 23, 2014" [4]

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The other registered location is 974 East 133rd St [5]

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re c21 dabbs president - Karen Capriotti, Richton Park – real estate managing broker license (471-015345) automatically revoked for violating the terms of a non-disciplinary order issued by the Department on April 8, 2013. [6]

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Erskine A. Cartwright, contributor of excellence to the Xavier University [7]

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disciplined in 2011

Probation 01/01/2012 12/31/2013 after information came to Department's attention indicating that from on or about the Fall of 2006 and continuing until on or about the Summer of 2007, the pharmacy dispensed a substantial quantity of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, p ursuant to orders received electronically issued by physiicans for patients who are alleged to have ordered the drugs via the internet; the Department was not notified 30 days in advance of the pharmacy's closing.

Suspension 12/01/2011 12/31/2011 after information came to Department's attention indicating that from on or about the Fall of 2006 and continuing until on or about the Summer of 2007, the pharmacy dispensed a substantial quantity of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, p ursuant to orders received electronically issued by physiicans for patients who are alleged to have ordered the drugs via the internet; the Department was not notified 30 days in advance of the pharmacy's closing. [8]

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This just keeps on going.. He was married to Maggie Bell Cheatham Cartwright, mayor of the city of Keysville: http://augustafuneralnotices.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/...

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1 https://www.idfpr.com/Forms/DISCPLN/1112_dis.pdf

2 http://www.subiz.us/biz-il-58953.html

3 http://illinois.cevo.us/company/c-21-dabbs-s-associates.html

4 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/augustachronicle/obituary.a...

5 http://www.manta.com/c/mm7dlxl/altgeld-gardens-drug-co

6 https://www.idfpr.com/forms/discpln/2013_09dis.pdf

7 http://www.xula.edu/mediarelations/XUGold_Summer2011.pdf

8 https://www.idfpr.com

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