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Episode 1: Clandestine Encounters
Season 8 · Episode 1

Episode 1: Clandestine Encounters

A secret-world broker, an old man left broke, assume nothing in this billion-dollar story

Assume Nothing · BBC Radio Ulster

January 15, 202225m 35s

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Show Notes

In a tiny apartment in San Francisco, lives an apparently ordinary, elderly man, with only the shirt on his back, a cheap plastic watch and one pair of shoes.

Few know who he is, or what he was. This is the story of the backroom broker, who, through brown envelopes and the handover of billions, may just have changed the course of history.

Some say he was recruited at a young age by the secret service, others tell a very different tale. His activities were shrouded in secrecy and wrapped in a fortune.

Roma Downey tries to piece together the story of this man - as told by the people in his life from close family members to those who met him in clandestine encounters.

Presenter: Roma Downey

Producer: Cathy Moorehead

Exec Editor: Andy Martin