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THE MASTERMIND 185

Oz's and former Duvdevan soldier who was running Le Roux's timber operations, told Oz that Le Roux had abruptly abandoned the projects. “Paul refused to wire the money, and that was the end,” Oz recalled. When local police started looting the equipment at one work site, Shoshana suspected he might be arrested and fled. He said that he called Le Roux and told him that he was done.

“There's no such thing as done,” Le Roux replied. “You work for me until I fire you, or something else.”

Shoshana told Oz that he feared Le Roux was planning to kill him. Oz persuaded his boss to instead send Shoshana back to Tel Aviv to help run the call center. From there, it was easier to quit. But even Israel began to seem unsafe for anyone who crossed Le Roux. Employees believed that he had connections in the Israeli Mafia through Shai Reuven, and there were stories to back it up. After an employee named Omer Bezalel told Le Roux that he wanted to quit, two men with guns showed up at Bezalel's home with pictures of his relatives in the United States. “Your job is im- portant to Paul,” they told him. “You can't leave.”

Oz would later claim that he was trapped, working under du- ress, unable to quit for fear that Le Roux would come after him and his family, which now included two kids. But he was also thriving at the company, making great money—enough to help support his extended family and give to the community. In the year since Oz and Alon Berkman traveled to Kenya in 2009, their responsibilities with RX Limited only increased. Le Roux had ex- panded his operations in Israel and opened the marketing call cen- ter in Maharashtra, India, with 150 employees. “On a day-to-day basis, he didn't seem so scared,” said one of Oz's deputies in Israel. “He projected that he was king of the world, making fifty to a hundred grand a month. But of course there is more to the story.”

In Manila, Dave Smith appeared unconcerned about Le Roux's vengeance and became increasingly brazen about his stealing. His

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