the Philippines alone, and his plan was to help the agency and other countries confiscate Le Roux's assets. In turn, he believed he would earn their protection against extradition to the United States. "I'm meeting with my handler today," he said. "I'm not asking for money. I think I'm doing the right thing. I want to help, with what little I know, to destroy what Paul Le Roux has left."

He wasn't the only one trying to find Le Roux's stashes. He'd heard talk of South African contractors showing up to ransack Le Roux's houses and dig up backyards. Corrupt Philippine law en- forcement agencies, McConnell said, were desperately searching the country for their own share. He likened it to Yamashita's gold, a supposed stash of war loot left behind by General Tomoyuki Yamashita when the Japanese fled the Philippines during World War II. Countless prospectors had lost themselves to an obsession with finding it, wrecking their lives in a vain search for a treasure that was long gone, if it had ever been there at all.