Ray Adams, Tron, Chaos Club, and a Curious Journalist

This was a curious sequence of emails, starting first of all with a freelance journalist Burkhard Schröder trying to contact Ray Adams through one of his colleagues:

From: burks@BURKS.de [mailto:burks@BURKS.de]
Sent: 25 May 1999 11:09
To: gyampolsky@ndsisrael.com
Subject: Boris Floricic


Hallo, Berlin-Kreuzberg 25.05.99

I would like to get into contact to Mr. Ray Adams. I am a free lancer in
Berlin, Germany, and writing a book about Boris Floricic alias "Tron". Mr.
Adams should know a lot about this difficult subject.

Sincerely Burkhard Schröder

This seems to have immediately rang alarm bells

From: Yampolsky, Gerry (UK)
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 1999 1:09 PM
To: Grant, Mal
Subject: FW: Boris Floricic
Importance: High


talk about suspicious

And was passed from one man to another

From: Grant, Mal
Sent: 26 May 1999 21:51
To: Adams, Ray
Subject: FW: Boris Floricic
Importance: High


Ray,

As discussed.

Mal

Until it eventually reached Ray Adams, who sent out an unusual message

From: Adams, Ray
To: cyberdyne@euro1.com
Date: 5/27/1999 10:23:00 PM
Subject: FW: Boris Floricic

Would you ask your friends at the CHAOS club if they want me to speak to
this journalist.

Ray Adams

The CHAOS Club was a group of German hackers Boris Floricic aka Tron, belonged to, and one of their members, with the email address cyberdyne@euro1.com, replied:

From: Marc [mailto:cyberdyne@euro1.com]
Sent: 27 May 1999 14:28
To: Adams, Ray
Subject: Re: FW: Boris Floricic

At 12:22 27.05.99 +0100, you wrote:

>Would you ask your friends at the CHAOS club if they want me to speak to
>this journalist.
>
>Ray Adams

he also contacted me
everybody ignores him at the moment cause boris parent's
did not want him to write anything at the moment. so in respect
to his parents i also ignore him more or less.

regards
marc

It should be noted there's no evidence to suggest anyone else in the Chaos Club but cyberdyne@euro1.com was contacted by Ray Adams.   Acting on his advice Ray ignores him

From: Adams, Ray
To: Marc
Date: 5/28/1999 12:49:16 AM
Subject: RE: FW: Boris Floricic
Tell your friends at the Chaos Club that I will also ignore him.

Ray

But pretty soon the journalist contacts Ray Adams directly

From: burks@BURKS.de [mailto:burks@BURKS.de]
Sent: 01 June 1999 16:37
To: radams@ndsuk.com
Subject: Tron


Hallo Ray Adams Berlin-Kreuzberg 01.06.99

I am writing a book about Boris Floricic. You knew him, and I got a lot of
informations about this theme, also about NDS. We should talk a little bit
about the circumstances of your "friendship" :-) with Tron.

I know something about your statement to Berlin's police. I am also very
intersted in all informations about Andreas Helm und Michael Kallmeier.

Please contakt me by phone +49 +30 6183387, 0172 382 9895 or - better - by
e-mail burks@burks.de

The book: "Burkhard Schröder: "Tron - Tod eines Hackers", Reinbek
(Rowohlt) 1999

Burkhard Schröder

Ray Adams replied, and also forwarded the message onto Marc:

From: Adams, Ray
To: cyberdyne@euro1.com
Date: 6/2/1999 8:47:30 AM
Subject: FW: Tron

To see.

-----Original Message-----

From: Adams, Ray
Sent: 01 June 1999 22:47
To: 'burks@BURKS.de'
Subject: RE: Tron

Hi

I heard that you have been asking about me. You should have approached me
direct in the first place.

So telephone me on ++ 44 385 313857.

First tell me a little about yourself. I have worked with many journalists
over the years. What have you written?. Are you any good?. What is
your angle? etc. You know the sort of thing. In the meantime I am making
my own enquiries of you so the quicker you respond the quicker we get on.

There is no need to put inneuendo in inverted commas I am a very
straightforward and respectable person.

Ray

So the journalist replies, answering Ray's questions, and asking some of his own:

From: burks@BURKS.de [mailto:burks@BURKS.de]
Sent: 02 June 1999 12:06
To: RAdams@ndsuk.com
Subject: Re: Tron


Hallo Ray Adams,

nice to meet you. :-

>First tell me a little about yourself.

Please look at: http://www.burks.de/english.html

>What have you written?.

Ten books, mostly about the extreme right szene in germany, one about
heroin, I will publish a novel next year. There is a link to an article of
the New York Times (in english) about me. Look on my page http://
www.burks.de/burks.html. Numerous articles about everything.

>What is your angle? etc. You know the sort of thing. In
>the meantime I am making my own enquiries of you so the quicker you
>respond the quicker we get on.

The police does not work any more. They rely on the medical expertise
which concluses: suicid. I am able to disprove this expertise to argue
further.

I know something about your connection to Tron. BTW: NDS is not very
suspcious. :-) Only a little bit :-)), because Jossi Zuriel has been
talking a little bit bullshit some days after Tron disappeared. I have a
fax which proves this. You met Boris twice at Kempenski and Hilton. You
offered a job to him, I have been told. What happened exactly? How do you
get to know about him? Tron's mother supposes too that you visited Tron at
his home.

I also have the delivery note from NDS to Tron. IF I know exactly what he
got from NDS, I would be able to check better out on which he was working
in the last weeks of his life.

Do you know Andreas Helm and Michael Kallmeier? They are VERY suspicious.

Tron mets two guys (not young) at saturday, after he left the house of his
mother. He has been seen entering a car from Belgium, I have been told.

I am interested in "Joy" and/or "Alfredo" and everything Boris told you
about his "blocker"-deals.

BTW: I have rough informations about the products NDS is working on and
about your job visiting young hackers in Europe.

>I am a very straightforward and respectable person.

Why not. I'm impressed. You worked for Scotland Yard, isn't it? What about
using PGP?

Greetz from Berlin

BurkS

Ray replies, and yet again forwards it's to Marc

From: Adams, Ray
To: cyberdyne@euro1.com
Date: 6/3/1999 4:39:26 AM
Subject: FW: Tron

-----Original Message-----
From: Adams, Ray
Sent: 02 June 1999 14:38
To: 'burks@BURKS.de'
Subject: RE: Tron

Some of what you say is familiar.

Boris was bright. Such people come to notice. NDS offers sponsorship at
University and possible employment therefater. This is normal business
practice.

The package that was sent to Boris was totally innocent. It was a couple
of chips for his University project. He could only buy them if he
purchased 100 at a time and as he only needed a couple I sent them to him.
They were ordinary off the shelf products.

I do not know anyone called Zuriel.

If you have evidence that Boris died other than by suicide I would assist
you all I am able. However, at the end of the day you must work with
Police on such matters. Are you interested in Justice or just a story?

There is nothing suspicious about NDS or the contact with BORIS. It was
open and normal.

You are wrong about visiting the Kempinsky hotel twice. It was once.

As for names of people I would like to know what you intend doing with any
information on such people. Are you suggesting that they were behind the
death of Boris? I have no such knowledge.

I still do not know what it is you are attempting to do. If I have any
information to establish that anyone killed Boris then I would give it to
the Police and not to you. What makes you think that I would do otherwise.

Rayt

The journalist replies with some questions that probably aren't the best for winning over Ray Adams

From: burks@BURKS.de
Sent: 02 June 1999 23:21
To: RAdams@ndsuk.com
Subject: Re: Tron

Hallo Radams,
NDS sponsorship at University and possible employment
therefater.

What kind of employment? What did he think about beeing employed in
UK?
This is normal business practice.
I know. I asked: How did you get into contact? Did you read about
him? Your informants?
The package that was sent to Boris was totally innocent. It
was a couple of chips for his University project.
That seems to be not true, because he finished this project some months ago. Don't pull my legs. Someone described this PICs to me. May be basic chips to decrypt PayTV. I am not sure. What kind of chips exactly, please?

if he purchased 100 at a time and as he only needed a couple I sent them to him. They were ordinary off the shelf products.
And why did you send this chips? Because of friendship? Didn't he say for what he need this chips?

I do not know anyone called Zuriel.

Then you will learn something about NDS now. I got this Fax from Jerusalem, some months ago:

I have meanwhile learned that they are mainly a pay T.V. company and that they have no connection with Defence sources in Israel...Finally I went to Jerusalem and in the company's offives found the deputy gegeral director who tried to convince me to talk to the company's spokeswoman in London...The Deputy Manager, Mr. Jossi Zuriel, admitted that he knew that Boris Floricic has disappeard 4 days ago but he did not know, till I told him, that he was found dead - hanging from a tree. How did he know about his disapperence? From the Internet on which hackers who break into the Internet, mentioned that he has disappeared. He claims he has no idea about the Lieferschein and chip and is trying to make contact with the company's president in London.

If you have evidence that Boris died other than by suicide I would assist you all I am able. However, at the end of the day you must work with Police on such matters.
Very soon, the police will close all their files. They announced it last
week: Suicid. And I don't believe it.

Are you interested in Justice or just a story?
I will get 5000 $ for the book and have to work six months. That is the
answer.

There is nothing suspicious about NDS or the contact with BORIS. It
was open and normal.
Sure. :-) Why did Markus Kuhn, Cambridge, work for NDS some times ago?

You are wrong about visiting the Kempinsky hotel twice. It was once.
Yes. The second time it was the Hilton, I was told. Or in reverse order.

As for names of people I would like to know what you intend doing with any information on such people. Are you suggesting that they were behind the death of Boris?
Not behind. They know something they did not tell the police. May be, they know who was interested to meet to Boris at saturday (the day he disappearde). He has been seen after he left his mother's home...

give it to the Police and not to you. What makes you think that I would do otherwise.
The police is not interested. I was told that you went to the police in Berlin. I will force the police to be interested in some aspects. There a some aspects of your headhunting-job which I am interested in too.
(Please excuse my bad english). I give NDS a fair chance to talk about the connection between the company and Boris. Why don't you encrypt your e-mail?

Greetz
BurkS

Ray is unimpressed with the line of questioning

Nachricht vom 03.06.99 weitergeleitet
Ursprung : burks@burks.de
Ersteller: RAdams@ndsuk.com
Your information about the chips I supplied is totally inaccurate. I do not like your insulting comments.
When he was sent the chips he was in the process of making his hardware device for his university project. I know the dates. You are wrong. If you are wrong about such a simple thing then you are probably wrong about other things. I do not lie and have no reason to lie.
Besides, I do not see how the questions you are asking can assist the Police to pursue what you are allegeing as to the cause of his death.

Again there is no one in NDS named Zuriel.

NDS does not need a fair chance in you book investigation as NDS has done absolutely nothing wrong. We have nothing to hide.

I have provided the Police will a full account of our dealings with Boris. They
were open and innocent.

As for pgp I have no reason to hide what I am saying.
Ray

Unfortuantly at that point there appears to be a break in emails, which continues when the journalist sends another email, this time in German, and which Ray Adams forwards to Marc

From: Adams, Ray
To: cyberdyne@euro1.com
Date: 8/2/1999 11:49:00 PM
Subject: FW: at once

-----Original Message-----
From: burks@BURKS.de [mailto:burks@BURKS.de]
Sent: 02 August 1999 12:00
To: radams@ndsuk.com
Subject: at once


Hallo Ray Adams Berlin-Kreuzberg 02.08.99

Ich habe Ihre Infos positiv verifizieren können. Dabei erfuhr ich, dass
sie angeblich Holländer seien und Deutsch verstünden.

Offenbar waren die Devices für ein Projekt Trons bestimmt, eine
Entschlüsselungsmaschine zu bauen. Er ist aber nicht sehr weit damit
gekommen.

Den Bericht der Yedioth Achronoth habe ich unter "grober Unfug"
eingeordnet. Ich habe ihn mir übersetzen lassen.

Ich habe starke Indizien für Suizid sammeln können, obwohl die Details
noch dubios sind. Aber sie werden ja schon darüber Bescheid wissen, da
einer meiner Informanten in engem Kontakt zu ihnen stehen soll. :-)

In diesem Sinne...

Gruss Burks

And translated via Google Translate

Hello Ray Adams Berlin-Kreuzberg 08.02.99

I can verify your information positively. And I learned that
Dutch and German are they supposed to understand.

Apparently, the devices were intended for a project Trons, a
To build decoding machine. He is not very far with it
came.

The report by the Yedioth Achronoth I'm in "utter nonsense"
classified. I have to translate it myself.

I was able to gather strong evidence of suicide, although the details
are still dubious. But they are indeed already know about it, because
is one of my informants are in close contact with them. :-)

In this sense ...

Gruss Burks

And after that there's one more email, again copied to Marc:

From: Adams, Ray
To: cyberdyne@euro1.com
Date: 8/3/1999 3:46:10 AM
Subject: FW: at once

To see

What is this that he did work for PMK - I do not believe it.

ray

-----Original Message-----
From: burks@BURKS.de [mailto:burks@BURKS.de]
Sent: 02 August 1999 18:15
To: RAdams@ndsuk.com
Subject: Re: at once


Hallo Radams,
You wrote:

>As you know my German is not very good.

I did not know that. Sorry.

>He was not a threat or a problem to us.

I know this. He was only a problem for Irdeto. :-)

>His death was very sad. The Police are convinced that it was
>suicide. I do not have any information to the contrary.

They will finish the investigations very soon.

> My own personal view was that if Boris did commit suicide
> then there must have been a heavy pressure on him.

Did you know that he got dyslexia?

>I had the impression that he would establish the truth.

I do not share this impression.

>I know that Boris was in touch with Dutch and Belgian people.

Especially with "Joy", Eurosat Electronics, Kermst. http://209.215.141.2.
Boris also worked for Paul Maxwell-King sometimes. You should know this.
:-))

>The connection was to do with the hack of the Irdeto
>company products.

Boris sold some variations of the Irdeto-Hack.

>This is nothing to do with NDS.

Sure.

Burks

So, it's clear Ray Adams had a close relationship with one individual who claims to be a member of the Chaos Club, and the journalist had plenty of questions about NDS and their relationship with Tron, although it's interesting to note Ray Adams' surprise Tron was possibly working for PMK.

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com