ery and lubrication oils, which would be purchased in the United States using corporate entities set up in Hong Kong. "I had a list of questions: What are the companies going to be used for and things like that," McGowan told me. "Everything I did, I tried to keep straight and aboveboard." McGowan flew to Hong Kong and opened a company called Diko Limited. Then he shopped for Le Roux's list of logging and mining machinery at the best prices. When he found earth-moving equipment in Texas, Le Roux paid him to travel to the United States and create a pair of companies to handle the export: Armada Commerce and Quality Fountain.

McGowan also recalled taking a single trip to Israel to complete the paperwork for CSWW, where he briefly met Moran Oz and Alon Berkman. But he claimed to know nothing about the under- lying businesses. When I pressed him about his role at ABSystems, he seemed even more baffled. "I've just Googled that right now," he said. "I've never heard of it until you sent me an email this eve- ning. I don't even know what that is. What is it?"

I explained that he appeared to be in charge of the domain reg- istry behind much of Paul Le Roux's fortune. "Have you got copies of this, can you send it to me?" he said.

He told me that for years he'd been fighting the perception that he was somehow influential in Le Roux's business-or indeed, that he was Le Roux. In fact, he said, Le Roux had stolen his identity and used it around the world. "They got copies of my documents, my passports, and used it to set up these fictitious companies," he said.

In 2009, Le Roux had suddenly abandoned his logging opera- tions in Africa and cut off communications with McGowan, who was left holding debts for the equipment he had purchased. He told me that he'd traveled to Manila to get some answers. Other people in Le Roux's orbit, including Mathew Smith, warned him it could be dangerous. "I said, 'Why should I not go? I've got noth- ing to hide,'" McGowan said. When he arrived in the Philippines, "It was like a wild goose chase: go here, go there. I don't know if he had someone following me."