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Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World Audio CD – Audiobook, October 2, 2018
Now a #1 international bestseller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history.
In 2009, a chubby, mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low 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. Over a decade, Low, with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund--right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street.
By early 2019, with his yacht and private jet reportedly seized by authorities and facing criminal charges in Malaysia and in the United States, Low had become an international fugitive, even as the U.S. Department of Justice continued its investigation.
Billion Dollar Whale has joined the ranks of Liar's Poker, Den of Thieves, and Bad Blood as a classic harrowing parable of hubris and greed in the financial world.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGrand Central Publishing
- Publication dateOctober 2, 2018
- Dimensions5.25 x 1.63 x 5.75 inches
- ISBN-101478947993
- ISBN-13978-1478947998
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A Financial Times Best Book of 2018
"As Bad Blood is to biotech, Billion Dollar Whale is to international finance... a wonderful read... Thrilling."―Bill Gates
"What a blast to read! A true life thriller that reads like a Hollywood movie, Billion Dollar Whale traces the exploits of the most mercurial, mysterious big player in history. Jho Low is Gatsby with twice the bank account and ten times the ambition, and the stories surrounding his exploits leap right off the page!"―Ben Mezrich, NewYork Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and BringingDown The House
"If you like global intrigue, financial crime, wealth porn, and absurdity, Billion Dollar Whale, by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, is for you.... It almost seems made up. Still, anyone who has followed the news out of Malaysia will know that the story is all too real."―The New Yorker
"Wright and Hope deliver a scintillating and prodigiously reported tale of a globe-spanning modern Gatsby and his audacious fraud."―Jesse Eisinger,Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for ProPublica and author of TheChickenshit Club
"This story of a Wharton graduate who carried out the $5 billion swindle known as 1MDB offers a textbook case of financial fraud in the modern age."―New York Times
"An incredible story.... If you need some billionaires to despise--look no further than these charlatans."―Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit
"Just finished reading Billion Dollar Whale and was blown away. I thought I had seen it all with Russian kleptocracy, but the story of the money stolen in Malaysia in 1MDB and all the enthusiastic Western enablers was unbelievable."
―Bill Browder, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Notice
"Even the most skilled fiction writer would have trouble conjuring the corrupt and colorful protagonist of Billion Dollar Whale. Bradley Hope and Tom Wright's gripping portrait of Jho Low and his enablers throughout the global financial system will both fascinate and enrage you."―Sheelah Kolhatkar,staff writer at The New Yorker and New YorkTimes bestselling author of Black Edge
"The story of a massive international financial scandal... As the authors amply prove, the scandal reaches far beyond Low. To succeed, he relied on the naivete, greed, and generally immoral conduct of huge banks as well as corrupt governments."―Kirkus
"An amazing tale of greed.... juicy and entertaining."―Library Journal (starred review)
"Wright and Hope transform their investigation of a mind-boggling financial fraud into a nonfiction thriller... This is an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Well-researched and well-documented.... Reveals how Low used a bag of tricks, including financial fraud, to make himself seem more powerful, more influential, and more successful than he actually was... This is a must-read."―Booklist
"An extraordinary tale.... richly woven...[with] dogged reporting.... Like all good business stories, Billion Dollar Whale is bigger than the immediate one it tells. It is a story of emerging markets crippled by corruption and cronyism and comes from the era of egregious--and mostly punishment-free--banking.... One thing is clear. If ever Hollywood gets round to telling the story on screen, here is perfect material for the script."―Financial Times
"Gripping.... The heist of the century."―Axios
"I highly recommend this rip-roaring story of brazen fraud..., political corruption..., and investment-banker callousness."―Adam Lashinsky, FORTUNE
"Take one chubby Malaysian business school graduate. Mix with Middle Eastern sheikhs and greedy Southeast Asian politicians. Add Wall Street investment banks, law firms and Swiss wealth managers. Then mix in superyachts, five-star hotels, luxury apartments, nightclubs, models, A-list movie stars--and bathtubs of champagne... [This] richly reported page-turner is meticulously pieced together from interviews, documents and emails by Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope."―PeterThal Larsen, Reuters
"Compelling."―Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A wonderful book... A rip-roaring, absolutely delightful account of one of the biggest financial cons in the history of the world.... If you liked Bad Blood, you might well enjoy Billion Dollar Whale... An incredible story of a con artist at the height of his game."―David Plotz, Slate "Political Gabfest"
"A cracking read."―Unreserved Media
"An incredible story."―Knowledge@Wharton
"One of the best business books in a long time."―Brian Sullivan, CNBC
"One of the most important books of 2018."―MoneyLaundering.com
"[The] extraordinaire saga of Malaysian entrepreneur Jho Low [is] chronicled in juicy detail.... A mind-boggling picture of Low's thievery, grandiose spending and disappearance."―Financial Advisor
"Impeccably researched."
―The Economist
"1MDB book is a whale of a tale.... Readers who have followed the 1MDB scandal will be expecting heavy doses of both opulence and corruption. What Billion Dollar Whale does best is show just how dizzyingly far-reaching the scheme was.... shocking - and an essential read."―Financial News of London
"A must-read for fugitive financiers...a belter of a financial scandal takedown...great fun....A breathless collation of excellent investigative reporting, it shows real life really can be stranger than fiction."―Bloomberg.com
Product details
- Publisher : Grand Central Publishing; Unabridged edition (October 2, 2018)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1478947993
- ISBN-13 : 978-1478947998
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 1.63 x 5.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,937,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #643 in White Collar Crime True Accounts
- #1,402 in Political Corruption & Misconduct
- #2,687 in Company Business Profiles (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Tom Wright is cofounder of Project Brazen, a journalism-focused content studio, a NYT bestselling author and Pulitzer finalist. In 2018, he coauthored Billion Dollar Whale, the definitive account of one of the world’s most audacious frauds. He’s the creator and host of Fat Leonard, a nine-part podcast about a man who corrupted the U.S. Navy. Both Billion Dollar Whale and Fat Leonard are being adapted for the screen. In 2020, Stanford University honored Tom with its Shorenstein award for services to journalism in Asia over a twenty year career.
Bradley Hope, based in London, is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Billion Dollar Whale (2018) and Blood and Oil (2020) and author of the upcoming The Rebel and The Kingdom (Nov 1, 2022). He is the co-founder of journalism studio Project Brazen along with Tom Wright. Hope is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Gerald Loeb Award winner.
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Customers find the book fascinating and unbelievable. They praise the authors' research and writing quality. The pacing is described as fast and enjoyable. Readers appreciate the well-developed characters and humanizing aspects of the story. However, opinions differ on the storyline - some find it sensational and exciting, while others consider it sobering and staggering.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find the story fascinating and unbelievable. The authors tell an extraordinary tale of a criminal genius directing. The narrative is clear, putting the tale into perspective. Readers can follow the twists and turns in events. The book is fast-paced yet thorough, and it's described as a thriller about power, influence, and greed.
"...Hope founded Project Brazen, an initiative to identify and tell extraordinary stories...." Read more
"...and Bradley Hope’s Billion Dollar Whale is an imperfect but still essential read for those interested in the 1MDB scandal and chronicles of..." Read more
"...The fund is gone, the debt is there, and the story is real -- a story that should be remembered for generations who seek answers on why they had to..." Read more
"...A detailed and informative read. No remorse in any of them for the legacies of devastation they left behind." Read more
Customers find the book's research quality good. They say the authors did a great job researching the subject and breaking down the story. The book is full of details, covering events that were never mentioned in other media. Readers mention it's relevant to their work and unbelievable in their scope and brazenness.
"...systems, social networks, impression management, celebrity, the financial sector and ethical decision making." Read more
"...managed to piece together is complex and spellbinding, a true work of relentless research and courage which can only benefit future generations...." Read more
"Such hard work and thorough research went into this book...." Read more
"...Kudos to the authors for their meticulous research and in writing a fast-paced but clear narrative that puts this tale into perspective...." Read more
Customers find the book's writing quality good. They appreciate the careful development of characters and their backgrounds. The book is described as readable, detailed, and like fiction.
"...that the authors have managed to piece together is complex and spellbinding, a true work of relentless research and courage which can only benefit..." Read more
"Such hard work and thorough research went into this book. Well-written, briskly paced, and included jaw-dropping scenes of extravagance with money..." Read more
"...The story is incredible, the audacity defies belief and yet it happened...." Read more
"...This book was written by real journalists and it reads like it. There are lots of facts...." Read more
Customers find the book has a fast and engaging pace. They describe it as a quick, easy read with an even pace. However, some readers mention a slow start and gripping but unsatisfying ending. Overall, the writing style is smooth and the research is impressive.
"...But there are some limitations to be aware of in this otherwise briskly reported book: Unlike other recent chronicles of lies, power, and politics..." Read more
"...Well-written, briskly paced, and included jaw-dropping scenes of extravagance with money that wasn't theirs. A detailed and informative read...." Read more
"...Kudos to the authors for their meticulous research and in writing a fast-paced but clear narrative that puts this tale into perspective...." Read more
"...This book was written by real journalists and it reads like it. There are lots of facts...." Read more
Customers enjoy the variety of characters in the book. They find the main culprit intriguing, and the book is described as human and not dry.
"...write in a way that allows the reader to keep straight the very large cast of characters...." Read more
"...So many characters and their interactions. Difficult at times to keep track of who was who. I repeated checked back to the list of persons involved...." Read more
"...govt at the time, but this book opened my eyes to them being many good men and women even in the govt who did their part...." Read more
"The book was extremely well detailed. It was difficult to keep up with the variety of characters...." Read more
Customers have different views on the storyline. Some find it sensational and jaw-dropping, with scenes of extravagance with money that wasn't theirs. Others describe it as a sobering account of massive bank fraud, with huge consequences for the population. The scope of corruption is staggering, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the United States.
"...Well-written, briskly paced, and included jaw-dropping scenes of extravagance with money that wasn't theirs. A detailed and informative read...." Read more
"...There are lots of facts. The reporters repeatedly explain in excruciating detail how Jho Low stole money from various entities and how..." Read more
"...The scope of the corruption was staggering including: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the United States, Malaysia, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Coutts,..." Read more
"...with the story, it is one of the most incredible and sensational stories of financial fraud and champagne luxury...." Read more
Customers have different views on the narrative complexity. Some find the story compelling and clear, offering a masterful account of the greatest heist of all time. Others find the story convoluted and difficult to follow at times, with repetition for some details that makes it hard to get into it.
"...1MDB affair IS an interesting story, but in this book the tale is just too repetitious." Read more
"...The story that the authors have managed to piece together is complex and spellbinding, a true work of relentless research and courage which can only..." Read more
"...So many characters and their interactions. Difficult at times to keep track of who was who. I repeated checked back to the list of persons involved...." Read more
"Such hard work and thorough research went into this book...." Read more
Customers have different views on the book's entertainment value. Some find it entertaining and fun, making them laugh and shake their heads in disbelief. Others consider it boring, tedious, and demotivating, with repeated accounts of wasteful ostentatious expenditures.
"...And it tickled the voyeur in me, who got to see “how the other half live.”..." Read more
"...Quite wasteful on paper for a book that's so easy to read in 1 sitting." Read more
"Entertaining but not the full story. A good read if you're a foreigner or otherwise don't follow Malaysian politics closely...." Read more
"...The book, however, becomes tedious and boring from repeated accounts of wasteful ostentatious expenditures - and pointlesss details on the..." Read more
Reviews with images
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Thrilling account of Theft and Corruption
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2024Wright, T., & Hope, B. (2019). Billion dollar whale: The man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the world. Hachette Books.
Tom Wright and Bradley Hope founded Project Brazen, an initiative to identify and tell extraordinary stories. As Wall Street Journal investigative reporters, they were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Whale is a term used by nightclubs and casinos to describe big spenders. According to the Project Brazen website, whale can more broadly represent "people, usually armed with extraordinary amounts of money, that play a larger role in global affairs than their public profile might suggest." The whale referred to in this book is Jho Low, the guy who stole ~$5 billion from Malaysia's 1MDB fund. The 1MDB sovereign wealth fund was created by Prime Minister Najib as a vehicle for "green energy and tourism to create high-quality jobs for all Malaysians." At least this was the marketing line. This book describes how for over a decade, Jho Low managed to siphon off billions of dollars from the 1MDB fund by cultivating relationships and exploiting loopholes and weaknesses within the financial system. The scope of the corruption was staggering including: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the United States, Malaysia, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Coutts, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, BSI (a small Swiss bank), etc. Both accounting firms KPMG and Deloitte issued audits that allowed the fraud to continue further. Law firms such as Shearman & Sterling helped facilitate the flow of hundreds of millions of stolen dollars into the United States to launder ill-gotten gains. These are some of the institutions that ultimately helped perpetuate the theft, movement, and ongoing scheme. When auditors, bankers, and lenders asked questions about funding and viability, Low leveraged his cultivated network such that others vouched for him, his credibility, and financial viability. Central to his capacity to pull off such a prolonged heist was others' greediness and lust for power. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street. As investigative reporters raised questions on aspects of the story, Low increasingly became paranoid and reckless. So too Prime Minister Najib moved from the language of democratic governance to authoritarianism as the scope of the corruption, money laundering, and theft were coming to light.
I'm fascinated by stories of largescale corruption. Wright and Hope suggested that "Low's bashful manners belied a hard core of ambition the like of which the world rarely sees. . . . Low was not so much timid as quietly calculating, as if computing every human interaction, sizing up what he could provide for someone and what they, in turn, could do for him." He fictionalized a narrative to create the impression of coming from a wealthy family and being a financial and business wizard. He systematically cultivated relationships with key people in positions of power and decision making and with access to wealth to help perpetuate his scheme. When questions were asked, he had an extensive network of people who would vouch for him, look the other way, or even craft an approach to work around obstacles. These stories are rarely about a sole actor working alone but instead, a web of relationships who collaboratively work to keep the ruse and the monies coming. This is such a rich case study from which to explore systems, social networks, impression management, celebrity, the financial sector and ethical decision making.
5.0 out of 5 starsWright, T., & Hope, B. (2019). Billion dollar whale: The man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the world. Hachette Books.Thrilling account of Theft and Corruption
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2024
Tom Wright and Bradley Hope founded Project Brazen, an initiative to identify and tell extraordinary stories. As Wall Street Journal investigative reporters, they were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Whale is a term used by nightclubs and casinos to describe big spenders. According to the Project Brazen website, whale can more broadly represent "people, usually armed with extraordinary amounts of money, that play a larger role in global affairs than their public profile might suggest." The whale referred to in this book is Jho Low, the guy who stole ~$5 billion from Malaysia's 1MDB fund. The 1MDB sovereign wealth fund was created by Prime Minister Najib as a vehicle for "green energy and tourism to create high-quality jobs for all Malaysians." At least this was the marketing line. This book describes how for over a decade, Jho Low managed to siphon off billions of dollars from the 1MDB fund by cultivating relationships and exploiting loopholes and weaknesses within the financial system. The scope of the corruption was staggering including: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the United States, Malaysia, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Coutts, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, BSI (a small Swiss bank), etc. Both accounting firms KPMG and Deloitte issued audits that allowed the fraud to continue further. Law firms such as Shearman & Sterling helped facilitate the flow of hundreds of millions of stolen dollars into the United States to launder ill-gotten gains. These are some of the institutions that ultimately helped perpetuate the theft, movement, and ongoing scheme. When auditors, bankers, and lenders asked questions about funding and viability, Low leveraged his cultivated network such that others vouched for him, his credibility, and financial viability. Central to his capacity to pull off such a prolonged heist was others' greediness and lust for power. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street. As investigative reporters raised questions on aspects of the story, Low increasingly became paranoid and reckless. So too Prime Minister Najib moved from the language of democratic governance to authoritarianism as the scope of the corruption, money laundering, and theft were coming to light.
I'm fascinated by stories of largescale corruption. Wright and Hope suggested that "Low's bashful manners belied a hard core of ambition the like of which the world rarely sees. . . . Low was not so much timid as quietly calculating, as if computing every human interaction, sizing up what he could provide for someone and what they, in turn, could do for him." He fictionalized a narrative to create the impression of coming from a wealthy family and being a financial and business wizard. He systematically cultivated relationships with key people in positions of power and decision making and with access to wealth to help perpetuate his scheme. When questions were asked, he had an extensive network of people who would vouch for him, look the other way, or even craft an approach to work around obstacles. These stories are rarely about a sole actor working alone but instead, a web of relationships who collaboratively work to keep the ruse and the monies coming. This is such a rich case study from which to explore systems, social networks, impression management, celebrity, the financial sector and ethical decision making.
Images in this review
- Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2018Tom Wright and Bradley Hope’s Billion Dollar Whale is an imperfect but still essential read for those interested in the 1MDB scandal and chronicles of financial malfeasance and fraud in general. But there are some limitations to be aware of in this otherwise briskly reported book: Unlike other recent chronicles of lies, power, and politics gone wrong like Bad Blood, Black Edge, or Dark Money, you will not find a meticulous appendix or a voluminous list of citations and references. Instead, Wright and Hope focus the bulk of their narrative on the life and lies of Jho Low, the man who orchestrated the massive theft of money from 1MDB, the so-called sovereign wealth fund.
Deciding to focus on Low is perhaps the greatest strength and weakness of the book. The authors tell at times exceedingly long and vivid anecdotes of Low indulging in his vices (parties, celebrities, gambling, mansions, art, jewelry, etc.), so much so that there are times where one wishes Wright and Hope brought the same narrative detail and word count to the arcana of their financial crimes. For example, in one early section of the book Wright and Hope cite the first of many “rumors in banking circles” as early as 2009 that “Low had siphoned” millions in bond money in one of his earliest schemes. It would have been helpful to learn more about who and how such “rumors” were propagated and why no one did anything. Well before the end of the book, the long accounts of Low’s debauched parties in Aspen, Las Vegas, the yacht Equanimity he had built with stolen money, and elsewhere begin to blur together.
As Low’s crimes grow and more institutions and individuals are brought into his circle of graft his parties risk overshadowing the more important part of the book: how these crimes were possible, what kind of culture and systems made such lies go unchecked for so long, and how many of the 1MDB scandal’s perpetrators still walk free and unpunished even today. Low proved astonishingly adept at taking advantage of lax oversight, making the right social favors, and the willful ignorance of corruption in the face of political power and money. But none of his crimes would have been possible had he not been aided and abetted by those in power and used to the systemically corrupt politics and ethnic tensions in Malaysia who deployed money meant for its citizens to a global coterie of bankers, lawyers, businessmen, and hangers-on all too eager to take some of the cash Low was bringing to bear and ignore glaring compliance issues.
Finally, the most disturbing and saddening conclusion the Wright and Hope’s reporting seems to reach is how such stories of crime and corruption are not solely the problems of developing countries. The problem is global, the rot is widespread, and the sickness runs deep. My running tally of the banks in the book whose internal compliance and due diligence teams raised issues only to have them overridden includes not just Goldman Sachs, but JP Morgan Chase, Coutts, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, BSI (a small Swiss bank), and more. Both accounting firms KPMG and Deloitte issued audits that allowed the fraud to continue further. White shoe law firms like Shearman & Sterling helped facilitate the flow of hundreds of millions of stolen dollars into the United States to launder ill-gotten gains. This is an incomplete list of institutions where leaders chose to ignore warning signs. The perpetrators have used their power and money to fight back against the law, both internationally and domestically. Justice has yet to be rendered on Low and his conspirators. Wright and Hope suggest the dismal possibility that few individuals will be held accountable and that these large companies have adapted to weather even billions in financial penalties, risking a repetition of the same mistakes.
Top reviews from other countries
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NMDReviewed in France on August 16, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Bonne livraison
Ce qui est essentiel est que le livre a été bien livré. Le livre est intéressant à lire et décrit bien le vol de plusieurs milliards de USD au détriment du gouvernement malaisien.
- Javier FGReviewed in Spain on January 6, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining
Very entertaining story. Couldn’t put it down.
-
LluisReviewed in Spain on December 12, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro de periodismo de investigación.
Excelente libro de periodismo de investigación. Bien explicado. Engancha desde la primera hasta la última página.
- Michael_LuxReviewed in Germany on April 14, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Good read and well written. Authors have spent a great deal of time on research and it shines through during the read.
- RaffaelloReviewed in Germany on June 3, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Another great Economic/finance story
I just read the smartest guys in the room about Enron and stumbled upon this book which I found likewise intriguing and crazy how such things still occur in our society, great book!