Raul De Armas III

For his published works, see Black Budget Books.

Raul De Armas III (born late 1960s), known by his pen name Raul Jones, is an American author, entrepreneur, and independent publisher based in Miami Beach, Florida. He writes science fiction and publishes through his own imprint, Black Budget Books, a division of Black Budget Media LLC.

De Armas draws on a background in criminology, two decades in corporate America, and a family history that spans federal law enforcement and organized crime to inform his fiction, which explores themes of institutional corruption, genetic science, civil rights, and the ethics of human engineering.

Early life and education

Raul De Armas III was born in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1960s. He grew up in a family shaped by federal law enforcement; his father, Raul De Armas II, spent his career as a special agent for a federal agency known only by its initials.[1] The elder De Armas's work provided his son with firsthand insight into the inner workings of government institutions, covert operations, and the tension between institutional loyalty and personal conscience — themes that would later become central to his fiction.

De Armas attended Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminology. His academic study of criminal justice systems, legal frameworks, and institutional behavior gave him a foundation in the structural mechanics of power that informs the political and legal dimensions of his writing.

Career

Corporate career

After graduating from Florida State, De Armas entered the corporate world and built a career spanning more than two decades across multiple industries. He held positions at Shell/Pennzoil in the energy sector and at Viacom/Showtime Networks in media and entertainment. Over the course of these roles, he developed extensive experience in sales, marketing, and strategic partnerships — skills that would later serve him in building his own businesses.

Financial services

De Armas transitioned from corporate life to entrepreneurship, establishing an independent financial services practice that he operated for fifteen years. Working as a financial services professional, he built and managed his own client base while navigating the regulatory and legal complexities of the financial industry. This period deepened his understanding of corporate structures, institutional gatekeeping, and the dynamics of power within regulated industries.

Writing and publishing

De Armas launched his writing career under the pen name Raul Jones, founding Black Budget Media LLC as his publishing company and Black Budget Books as its imprint. His fiction operates in the science fiction and thriller genres, exploring questions of genetic engineering, institutional corruption, bioethics, and civil rights through speculative narratives grounded in realistic portrayals of government and corporate systems.

His work is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with additional information on his catalog and upcoming projects available at his publisher website, blackbudgetbooks.com.

Influences

De Armas cites Gene Roddenberry as a foundational influence, particularly Roddenberry's approach to using speculative fiction as a vehicle for examining contemporary social and political issues.[2] He has described himself as a lifelong Star Trek fan and identifies with the tradition of science fiction that uses futuristic settings to interrogate questions about human nature, justice, and institutional power.

His father's career in federal law enforcement provided a second major influence. Growing up with access to stories about government operations, institutional culture, and the moral ambiguities of working within powerful systems gave De Armas a perspective on authority and corruption that distinguishes his fiction from more conventional genre fare. His criminology education reinforced this lens, equipping him with an academic framework for understanding the mechanisms through which institutions exert control.

Equally formative were the stories from the other side of his family. On his mother's side, De Armas grew up in the orbit of Natale "Joe Diamond" Evola, boss of the Bonanno crime family from 1971 until his death in 1973. Through his grandfather Paul Mione — whose mother and Evola's mother were sisters — De Armas was raised hearing firsthand accounts of a world most people only read about. These stories shaped his understanding of how power actually works: not as a clean divide between good and evil, but as overlapping systems where loyalty, corruption, and survival blur together. This duality — a father enforcing the law and a family connection running outside it — became the engine of his fiction, which portrays institutions as complex, morally compromised organisms where the people inside them are never entirely heroes or entirely villains.

In his foreword, De Armas quotes his father: "The wars the government fights are not meant to be won. They are necessary and serve many different purposes. But if the government has you in their crosshairs and chooses to come after you, seldom if ever will you prevail."[1] He has described this statement not as cynicism but as lived experience, and credits it as the seed from which his fiction grew.

Personal life

De Armas resides in Miami Beach, Florida. He comes from a family with deep roots in law enforcement, public service, and business — as well as more colorful chapters of American history.

His father, Raul De Armas II, spent his career as a special agent for a federal agency. His mother is a retired school teacher. His brother, Paul De Armas, is a businessman. His sister, Victoria Galan, is a retired city government executive who served as a communications director.

The intersection of federal law enforcement and organized crime within his own family history — a father who served as a government agent, and a grandfather whose family ties reached into the leadership of the Bonanno crime family — has been cited by De Armas as a formative influence on his fiction, which frequently explores the blurred lines between institutional authority and criminal enterprise.

External links

• Black Budget Books — official publisher website
• Raul Jones on Amazon

References