Scott Johnson

The payoff was to be found elsewhere.

So what's elsewhere in this case?

And what I sort of landed on is that there is a kind of

complex psychological game that he was orchestrating that satisfied something some deep need within him uh

And that took this very malignant, malevolent manifestation.

It was a desire to control, a desire to manipulate.

There was a very sadistic element to this.

This was somebody who found pleasure in pleasure.

in the act, I think, of creating these elaborate scenarios, placing people in these impossible situations and getting them to do his bidding.

And, you know, I'm not a psychologist and I hesitate to make any kind of definitive diagnoses, but I think just describing the behavior gives you a sense of where the pleasure centers for this person lay.

And they really didn't lay, as far as I can tell, in the kind of the financial reward, but rather in the interpersonal environment.

mechanics, the weird psychological gamesmanship that was required of him and that he forced on other people.

And whatever that that, you know, particular sort of sadistic bent

uh, that he had was this particular scam satisfied that itch.

And I think that's why he puts so much work into it and was so willing to expend the kinds of energy that I think most people would, you know, just say, well, screw it.

You know, it's not worth it.

It's like hundreds of people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.