Generally speaking, the more intelligent a person is, the less likely they are to keep a secret for too long when they are "captured" and interrogated.
Because they are smart, they know how to weigh the pros and cons better. When they are doomed to reveal the truth and find it difficult to escape, especially when facing "professionals" who are interrogating them, they are more likely to "know the times and act accordingly."
And someone who could commit a crime like defrauding 500 million pounds is definitely not a stupid person.
If you have a high IQ and a strong will, then why don't you become 007?
But what surprised Barron was that this man called "Ilzer" was actually a tough guy. Even after the special operations team took turns to "show off their skills", they finally relied on some drugs to pry open his mouth...
In the words of the special operations team leader, as quoted by Nigel:
"This guy is more difficult to deal with than most professional spies they have encountered."
But it is normal to imagine that the more professional the spy is, the more he understands that when it comes to torture, professionals have a wealth of methods, and almost no one can really keep a secret in the end. Therefore, they either simply commit suicide at the beginning, or if they miss such an opportunity, they will often put forward conditions in exchange for their own intelligence, and will not really grit their teeth to fight back.
After obtaining the other party's intelligence, they also understood why Ilze was so stubborn.
It turns out that the group of people that Barron and his friends have always called the "London Star Gang" actually belong to an extremist organization. This organization is very interesting. They are all fanatical believers in the so-called "wealth restart" creed.
The so-called "restart of wealth" means that these people have a theory that all the wealth in the world is granted by God and does not belong to individuals, and all people's wealth is kept to help God.
Therefore, these fortunes should not be inherited. The rich should donate all their wealth after death, return to society and "restart" their wealth.
The reality is that many wealthy people do not do this. Instead, they pass on the wealth that they "help God to manage" to their descendants. Such behavior disrupts the "redistribution" of wealth, which is the main reason for many injustices in the world.
What they have to do is to help God and complete the "restart of wealth".
In their theory, all those who possess wealth and pass it on to their descendants are "sinners", and the "sins" committed by these sinners vary in degree.
The wealth of those nobles among them came from an earlier "grant of power", and therefore they were "sinners" of the highest level.
The capitalists, on the other hand, gained wealth through their business operations and were therefore less evil than the nobles.
This is why in their first "wealth restart" scam, the "London Star", their targets were mostly aristocrats.
They do not consider themselves to be so-called "criminal gangs", but rather "saviors" who are engaged in saving wealth distribution. Their "organization" currently has more than a dozen core members, all of whom are fanatical believers of this creed. They have to pass layers of screening to join, and must completely follow this creed from the bottom of their hearts. These people call themselves "Raphael".
Raphael means healer and physician in Hebrew. In the Bible, he is the angel of healing among the seven angels around God. He heals not only people's bodies but also their faith.
Hearing this, although it was slightly different from what Barron had initially expected, it was not too surprising.
After all, there are all kinds of strange so-called "sects" in the world, most of which are cults. It is not uncommon for people like "Raphael" to claim to be messengers of justice but use criminal means to achieve their goals.
If he were an ordinary person, he might really appreciate Raphael's purpose, but now his identity is exactly that of a noble, and the other party has hurt his family, so let alone the archangel, even if Jesus came, he would have to make him drink Meng Po soup.
"Have you heard from the others?"
"Since escaping from London, these people have been temporarily separated in Romania. According to Ilzer, before the next action, Raphael will notify each other in a specific way..."
In this sense, Ilze is not the most important person in Raphael. Now he is on his way to Africa. The Protector Military Service Company has begun to build a base near the gold mine in Africa, and Ilze will be a "guest" there temporarily.
However, although they have not yet obtained the specific location of other members from Ilze, Barron has at least obtained more information about Raphael and some members. They will not just wait passively and will continue to investigate and search for Raphael.
…
In mid-June, after seeing the rapid development of the Freeview platform, ITV finally stopped standing by and began negotiations with SEM Group and BBC, the two major shareholders of Digital UK, hoping to acquire shares and join the company.
So far, the number of users connected to the Freeview platform has reached nearly 3 million, which is far more than the initial expectations.
Of course, compared with BSkyB, which now has more than 6 million users, the Freeview platform still has a long way to go, and its number of users is less than half of BSkyB.
It is important to know that BSkyB users are all paying users, which is more valuable than the free users of the Freeview platform!
However, at this time, ITV also promised that if they could join the ranks of Digital UK shareholders, they would lobby OFCOM together with SEM Group and BBC to change their decision that Digital UK's terrestrial digital TV channels can only be broadcast for free, and add paid options.
This will encourage BBC and ITV's pay channels to join the Freeview platform and increase the number of programs on the platform.
"ITV still believes that Digital UK's valuation of £1 billion is too high and completely lacks sincerity. They insist that the maximum valuation they can give is £500 million..."
Hearing what Digital UK CEO Brad Price said, Barron shook his head:
"Then let's continue the discussion. Anyway, the Freeview platform is developing rapidly, and they will soon realize this."
In ITV's view, Digital UK was established just over half a year ago, less than a year ago, and a valuation of 1 billion pounds is really unacceptable.
Although the number of Freeview users is about to exceed 3 million, and BSkyB has only more than 6 million, Sky TV is valued at more than 10 billion pounds...
But at the end of the day, Freeview is just a platform, and its users are all free, and the company is still far from making a profit.
However, both Baron and Brad Price understood that Digital UK was no longer the company with an uncertain future when it was first established.
If nothing else, their Puma Electronics and related technical departments have been developing rapidly and have already made plans for a new generation of digital set-top boxes.
As the number of users increases, once some paid channels are successfully opened, Digital UK, as a platform middleman, will make a profit in a matter of minutes...
Therefore, they are still very persistent about the valuation of 1 billion pounds at this time.
As Barron said, let's talk about it first. As the company grows in size, ITV is destined to be passive.