Show Notes
In this special bonus episode from The Financial Times, "The Broker" tells the story of how a failed baseball hopeful and disgraced stockbroker reinvented himself as one of America’s most consequential modern arms dealers.
From a family-run warehouse in Virginia Beach, Will Somerindyke built his company into a crucial conduit in the Pentagon’s covert supply chains — sourcing Soviet-era weapons for wars in Syria and Yemen before emerging as a central player in Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
As artillery shells became the most sought-after commodity of the war, he placed a multimillion-dollar bet on reviving crumbling Cold War factories in the Balkans, transforming himself from middleman to manufacturer.
Based on months of reporting, The Broker traces Somerindyke’s rise through the shadow world of privatised warfare — where geopolitics, profit and personal ambition collide — and reveals how modern conflicts are sustained not only by soldiers on the front lines, but by entrepreneurs who move the weapons behind the scenes.
This piece, written by the FT’s Miles Johnson, host of Hot Money Season 2: The New Narcos, was originally printed in FT Weekend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Untold: Opus Dei
The FT’s Laura Hughes speaks to Samantha Power, former head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) who spearheaded efforts to fight lead poisoning globally. They talk about why she got interested in lead poisoning, efforts at supply chain tracing Ecuadorian cinnamon, and the UK government’s new plans for a lead testing trial.
A sleepy Catholic bookshop and events space run by Opus Dei priests in Washington, has turned into a central networking hub for an ascendant conservative movement. Some of the biggest names on the right gravitate around it. People close to Opus Dei say that is not a coincidence.
Over the past decade, elite universities have become home to a network of influential conservative think-tanks fighting against the “woke secular creed”. Meanwhile, at Opus Dei student centres, the next generation of ambitious leaders hear similar moral teachings creep into partisan politics. Is it just ideas that link the two – or more?
Opus Dei’s founder taught his followers that spiritual formation is a continual development of character. But some find that the views spread by Opus Dei do not always match the Church’s official teaching – particularly its attitudes towards women and homosexuality. Insiders describe a complex youth recruitment network that offers some clues to the kind of person Opus Dei molds – and what kind of person it is interested in.
We meet Sarah – a young girl drawn to Opus Dei’s message that professional work can be a path to holiness. At 18, Sarah says goodbye to her family and moves into an Opus Dei centre to learn how to make her work an offering to God. But what she experiences there feels different to the organisation she thought she knew. Sarah chafes at unexpected rules, unquestioning obedience and dehumanising treatment.