It's part of a writer's profession as it's part of a spy's profession to prey on the community to which he's attached to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely.
Ferdinand was a gold trader. He was a lawyer for mining companies. When he entered politics in l949 he had tons and tons of gold. When Bill Gates was a college dropout Ferdinand already possessed billions of dollars and tons of gold. It wasn't stolen.