Paul le Roux - possibly one of the world's most devious criminal masterminds - was regarded as a cool teen while growing up in Krugersdorp on the West Rand in Gauteng.
One of the few kids to have his own computer in the 1980s, Little Paulie, as he was known, was the friend every child wanted.
Later, while his family believed he was living the life as a computer programmer in the US, Australia and the UK, riding the dot-com wave, he was masterminding the trading of military missile technology, drugs and weapons, and establishing Somali militias.
Only after his arrest in 2012 did Le Roux's criminal activities begin to emerge. Now he has been exposed as the former head of a global criminal empire linked to international arms dealers and assassinations, with The New York Times describing him as "one of the world's least known but most prodigious criminals".
Le Roux is the subject of a new book, The Mastermind, by Evan Ratliff, set to hit South African bookshelves later this month.
"We were flabbergasted," Le Roux's cousin Heath Jordaan told the Sunday Times this week. "It was something we could never picture Little Paulie getting involved in."
From his Turffontein office Jordaan said: "It's hard to reconcile Paul - who got me interested in computer programming - with this criminal mastermind."
Jordaan said the family discovered 46-year-old Le Roux's double life after US journalists tracked them down and enquired about his childhood. "Paul was the most normal kid you could think of. Though he had friends who he would hang out with, he was a bit of a geek and a nerd.
"What we loved about Paul was his computer. He was the only one we knew of at the time who had a Commodore 64 [a popular home computer in the 1980s]. When we went to visit Uncle Paul and Aunty Judy [Le Roux's parents] we raced to play on it.
"When he began learning computer programming he became even cooler. He would sit us down and show us what he was doing, which was incredible. When he left for the UK and Australia as a young adult, we were told he had gone to make his money in computer programming. He was already a genius in computer programming when he left."
Jordaan said Le Roux's parents had divorced. Judy had since died, and the family had lost track of Paul.
"In the early 2000s while I was studying computer programming at technikon, he asked if I wanted to become involved in his software outsourcing company, Software Professionals, in SA. I worked for him for about six months but never saw him. He ran the company from Australia with friends here helping him."
He said after Software Professionals folded, his interaction with Le Roux stopped.
Ratliff has revealed how Le Roux's computer programming skills led him to build a global criminal empire, making millions of dollars fuelling the US painkiller epidemic through online schemes.
According to Ratliff, Le Roux created an international cartel trafficking drugs out of North Korea and South America, selling arms to Iran, creating a militia in Somalia, dealing in black market gold and hiring ex-military personnel as mercenaries and assassins.
He was arrested in Liberia by US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers while negotiating to supply methamphetamine (tik) ingredients to the US.
He pleaded guilty to the drug charges and received immunity against prosecution for his other crimes.
It was only after he was granted the immunity that he confessed to participating in or arranging seven murders.
As part of his plea deal, he also helped DEA officers to dismantle his organisation and arrest his top lieutenants.
"Hearing all of this, including that he now helps the DEA to catch crooks, still blows my mind," said Jordaan...