Mastermind is the true-life story of Paul Le Roux, an unassuming former programmer who built a sophisticated globe-spanning criminal empire— the sheer volume and diversity of which authorities had never before encountered— until he was taken down by his own lieutenant and the DEA and became one of the biggest criminal informants in DEA and FBI history. The show follows Le Roux's lieutenants as they compete for his power and affection, institute wild criminal schemes, and examine the nature of good and evil for each other in the process.