Former FBI Lead Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss on the Business of Hostage Taking

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Chris Voss spent 24 years as the FBI's lead international hostage negotiator. He says hostage taking isn't a crime of passion, it's a business. In this conversation, Chris breaks down the business model behind the ransom: who gets targeted and why, the org chart of a kidnapping gang (spotters, grabbers, transporters, negotiators, and a boss who thinks everyone is lazy), why he settled nearly every deal on a Friday, and how he got every hostage in Haiti out for under $5,000 when the asking price was a million. He and David Rogier also get into kidnap and ransom insurance and the K&R consultants who come with it, why Americans became a bad commodity to steal, the Philippines case where one…