Billion dollar whale
2018
- swindlers and swindling
- fraud
- biography
- wall street (new york, n.y.)
- business & economics
- banks & banking
- corporate & business history
- political science
- corruption & misconduct
- true crime
The story
Two Pulitzer-finalist Wall Street Journal reporters document the true story of how a young social climber orchestrated one of history's biggest financial heists, exposing the secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood and politics. 75,000 first printing. "What does it take to steal $5 billion? In 2009, with the dust yet to settle on the financial crisis, a mild-mannered Wharton grad set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. His name is Jho Low, a man whose behavior was so preposterous he might seem made up. If Jho Low appeared shy on the surface, behind the scenes he was a big-talking, social-climbing huckster. Barely out of college, Low persuaded the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, to create an investment fund, known as 1MDB. Directing it from the shadows, Low raised more than $10 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, and over the next half decade siphoned off billions--money used to finance elections; to purchase luxury real estate; to produce Hollywood films, including The Wolf of Wall Street; and to throw champagne-drenched parties around the world. Low's largesse put him at the center of a world that included celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx, supermodels like Miranda Kerr, and even a major donor to President Obama. More staggering still, no one seemed to notice--not the global banks, who seemingly turned a blind eye to shady transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars, nor the official financial-system watchdogs. Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters, have broken dozens of stories about the 1MDB affair. Now, for the first time, they reveal the complete inside story of one of the biggest financial heists in history. Billion Dollar Whale will join the ranks of Liar's Poker and Den of Thieves as a classic, harrowing parable of the financial world, hubris, and greed."--Jacket. In 20
What it’s like
Brisk, reportorial prose with the momentum of a thriller: short scene openings, dense trails of wire transfers, and a steady rotation of cities and clubs. Chapters move between government offices in Kuala Lumpur, Manhattan penthouses, Las Vegas suites, and sun-bleached Mediterranean decks, so the mood shifts from glossy excess to quiet unease as the paper trail tightens. The voice is clear and wry rather than lyrical, with an investigator's patience for dates, ledgers and phone calls and a sharp eye for how money looks when it is spent to be admired. It suits a rainy weekend or a late-night stretch alone with a mug of tea, when the pleasure lies in watching an absurd story assemble itself piece by piece. The tension comes from evasion and near misses rather than physical danger: there is no graphic violence and little gore, and references to sex and drugs are incidental, part of the party-circuit backdrop. The emotional register is cool irony edged with exasperation at institutions that looked away. It is for readers who enjoy true crime, business history and the anatomy of greed, especially those who liked the swagger of Liar's Poker and the forensic pacing of financial exposé.
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