Tom Wright

Bradley Hope

An epic true-tale of hubris and greed from two Pulitzer-finalist Wall Street Journal reporters, Billion Dollar Whale reveals how a young social climber pulled off one of the biggest financial heists in history--right under the nose of the global financial industry--exposing the shocking secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood, and politics. The dust had yet to settle on the global financial crisis in 2009 when an unlikely Wharton grad was setting in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Billion Dollar Whale will become a classic, harrowing parable about the financial world in the twenty-first century.

The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

Billion Dollar Whale

Justin Scheck

From award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters Justin Scheck and Bradley Hope (coauthor of Billion Dollar Whale), a revelatory look at the inner workings of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, the world's most powerful ruling clan, and how the struggle for succession produced the charismatic but ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS. Thirty-five-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and WME Chairman Ari Emmanuel flew out to meet with the crown prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley and the New York Times. But MBS began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out, including that he ordered the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent in the Saudi royal family by holding fifty-plus members in the Ritz-Carlton hotel for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including buying a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his displays of autocratic muscle-what mattered was the flex. Blood and Oil is a gripping work of investigative journalism about one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders. Hope and Scheck show how MBS's precipitous rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of U.S.-Saudi relations for more than eighty years: oil in exchange for military protection. Caught in his net are well-known US bankers, Hollywood figures, and politicians, all eager to help the charming and crafty crown prince. The Middle East is already a volatile region. Add to the mix an ambitious prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre, a tight relationship with the White House through President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner, and an apparent willingness to break anything--and anyone-that gets in the way of his vision, and the stakes of his rise are bracing. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become an unstable failed state and a magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it will have reverberations around the world.

Mohammed Bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power

Blood and Oil

One Man's Crusade to Overthrow the North Korean Regime

The Rebel and the Kingdom

Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this New York Times bestseller about the 1MDB scandal exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios). Now a #1 international bestseller, BILLION DOLLAR WHALE is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), 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.

Cómo un joven empresario logró estafar más de 5 mil millones de dólares justo debajo de las narices de la industria financiera mundial. Una investigación sin precedentes escrita por los galardonados periodistas de The Wall Street Journal, Tom Wright y Bradley Hope, sobre el fraude financiero más grande del siglo XXI. El polvo aún tenía que asentarse en la crisis financiera mundial en 2009 cuando un improbable graduado de Wharton puso en marcha un fraude de agallas y magnitud sin precedentes, uno que simbolizaría la próxima gran amenaza para el sistema financiero global. Los aspectos prácticos del plan eran sorprendentemente simples: Jho Low persuadió al primer ministro de Malasia para que creara un fondo de inversión que dirigiría desde las sombras; recaudó más de 10 mil millones de dólares de inversores globales con la ayuda de Goldman Sachs y otras instituciones, y durante la siguiente mediadécada desviaron no menos de 5 mil millones de dólares. Dicho dinero fue utilizado para financiar elecciones, comprar propiedades de lujo en Londres, Nueva York y Los Ángeles; producir películas de Hollywood, incluida El lobo de Wall Street, y hacer fiestas llenas de champaña por todo el mundo. Su generosidad también le produjo amistades con actores de Hollywood, como Leonardo DiCaprio, modelos de Victoria's Secret, como Miranda Kerr, e incluso con un miembro del círculo íntimo del presidente Obama. Lo más asombroso fue que nadie pareció notarlo, ni los bancos globales, como Goldman y J. P. Morgan, que se hicieron de la vista gorda frente a las oscuras transferencias de cientos de millones de dólares; ni tampoco los auditores internacionales, banqueros centrales ni vigilantes del sistema financiero oficial.

El fraude del siglo

"Blood and Oil is the fascinating and highly entertaining tale of Mohammed bin Salman's rise to power. With fly-on-the-wall reporting and palace intrigue worthy of Machiavelli, it will keep you turning the pages at a fast clip until its tragic denouement. And more importantly, it will leave you with a deep and nuanced understanding of the Crown Prince's thinking and its implications for Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East." - John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood Thirty-five-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair and WME Chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the Crown Prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley. But 'MBS' began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of excess and about the brutality of his regime began to slip out. Then there was the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent in the Saudi royal family by holding three hundred members in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including the purchase of a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his flexing of autocratic muscle. "This is as close to the truth, to the real story of the corruption, vulgarities, horrors, and lies of the Kingdom and its current despot as we are likely to get. It also can be read as a Shakespearean story of utter greed." - Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command

Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power

'A propulsive investigation into the wild adventures of a man determined to bring down the North Korean regime . . . Deeply reported and novelistic. I flew through it' Ed Caesar, author of The Moth and the Mountain 'The engrossing inside story of two recent events that are jaw dropping even for North Korea, and the obsessive man behind them . . . A terrific piece of up-close reportage that reads like a spy thriller but is all too real' Anna Fifield, author of The Great Successor: The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un HOW DID A COLLEGE KID BECOME A GLOBAL FUGITIVE? In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realised he had found a cause to which he could devote his life. Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped ferry asylum-seeking North Korean escapees to safety. Meanwhile, Hong's secret organization, Cheollima Civil Defense (later renamed Free Joseon), began tracking the North Korean government's activities, and its volatile ruler, Kim Jong-un. Free Joseon targeted North Korean diplomats who might be persuaded to defect, while drawing up plans for a government-in-exile. After the shocking broad-daylight assassination in 2017 of Kim Jong-nam, the dictator's older brother, Hong, along with US Marine veteran Christopher Ahn, helped ferry Jong-nam's family to safety. Then Hong took the group a step further. He initiated a series of high-stakes direct actions, culminating in an armed raid at the North Korean embassy in Madrid - an act that would put Ahn behind bars and turn Hong into one of the world's most unlikely global fugitives. The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of how a trip down the safe and well-worn path of activism soon morphed into something extremely dangerous. Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Bradley Hope - who broke numerous details of Hong's operations in the Wall Street Journal -reveals his remarkable story of idealism and insanity, hubris and heroism, all set within the secret battle for the future of the world's most mysterious and unsettling nation.

The True Story of the Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime

Una intrépida guía que analiza una de las industrias más salvajes en el planeta: el comercio ilegal de drogas. Tom Wainwright, reportero de The Economist, enseña las lecciones más importantes de economía y management detrás del funcionamiento de un cártel de drogas. Un libro que encantará a los lectores de Freakonomics o McMafia. "Un libro de economía para la generación Breaking Bad" -The Times of London- ¿Cómo puede ser exitoso (y sobrevivir) el jefe de una organización criminal que se está iniciando en el multimillonario negocio de los estupefacientes? Aprendiendo de los mejores, por supuesto. Desde la creación del valor de marca hasta poner a punto el servicio al cliente, las personas encargadas de administrar los cárteles de drogas han estudiado atentamente las tácticas y estrategias de corporaciones como Walmart, McDonald's y Coca-Cola. ¿Y cómo pueden aprender los gobiernos a combatir este fenómeno? Si fueran conscientes de que los cárteles son compañías, los encargados de aplicar la ley podrían entender mejor su funcionamiento y dejarían de gastar millones de dólares en un esfuerzo inútil por ganar la "guerra" contra este negocio global y altamente especializado. El intrépido guía que conducirá al lector por los caminos de una de las industrias más salvajes en el planeta se llama Tom Wainwright. A través de los plantíos andinos de cocaína, las prisiones de Centroamérica, las tiendas de mota en Colorado o los sitios online de venta de drogas en la llamada Web Oscura (deep web), Wainwright brinda una mirada inédita y atrevida al comercio de drogas y sus 250 millones de consumidores. El elenco incluye a Bin Laden, el guía boliviano de la coca; al Viejo Lin, líder de una pandilla en El Salvador; a Starboy, el millonario roquero neozelandés productor de "pastillas para fiestas", así como a una amigable abuelita mexicana que cocina hot cakes de moras mientras planea un asesinato. Entre presidentes, policías y jóvenes matones, se explican asuntos importantes como el sofisticado simbolismo de los tatuajes, por qué los grupos delincuenciales deciden competir o coludirse, y las razones por las que los cárteles se preocupan de una manera sorprendente por la responsabilidad social corporativa. La crítica ha opinado: "Uno de los argumentos más concisos y convincentes que he leído a favor de una reforma legal sobre las drogas" -The New York Times- "Wainwright es uno de los periodistas con más suerte después de haber sobrevivido a su investigación" -The Washington Times-

Cómo administrar un cartel de la droga

Narconomics

How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive? The New York Times bestselling co-author of Billion Dollar Whale and Blood and Oil chronicles the heart-pounding tale of a self-taught operative his high-stakes attempt subvert the North Korean regime. “Propulsive . . . Hope’s account is both deeply reported and novelistic.”—Ed Caesar, contributing staff writer for The New Yorker, author of The Moth and the Mountain In the early 2000s, Adrian Hong was a soft-spoken Yale undergraduate looking for his place in the world. After reading a harrowing account of life inside North Korea, he realized he had found a cause so pressing that he was ready to devote his life to it. What began as a trip down the safe and well-worn path of organizing soon morphed into something more dangerous. Hong journeyed to China, outwitting Chinese security services as he helped asylum-seeking North Koreans escape across the border. Meanwhile, Hong’s secret organization, Cheollima Civil Defense (later renamed Free Joseon), began tracking the North Korean government’s activities, and its volatile third-generation ruler, Kim Jong-un. Free Joseon targeted North Korean diplomats who might be persuaded to defect, while drawing up plans for a government-in-exile. After the shocking broad-daylight assassination in 2017 of Kim Jong-nam, the dictator’s older brother, Hong, along with U.S. Marine veteran Christopher Ahn, helped ferry Kim Jong-nam’s family to safety. Then Hong took the group a step further. He initiated a series of high-stakes direct actions, culminating in an armed raid at the North Korean embassy in Madrid—an act that would put Ahn behind bars and turn Hong into one of the world’s most unlikely fugitives. In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, The Rebel and the Kingdom is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quo—to instead live boldly by his principles. Acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Bradley Hope—who broke numerous details of Hong’s operations in The Wall Street Journal—now reveals the full contours of this remarkable story of idealism and insanity, hubris and heroism, all set within the secret battle for the future of the world’s most mysterious and unsettling nation.

"Blood and Oil is the fascinating and highly entertaining tale of Mohammed bin Salman's rise to power. With fly-on-the-wall reporting and palace intrigue worthy of Machiavelli, it will keep you turning the pages at a fast clip until its tragic denouement. And more importantly, it will leave you with a deep and nuanced understanding of the Crown Prince's thinking and its implications for Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East." - John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood Thirty-five-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair and WME Chairman Ari Emmanuel flew out to meet with the Crown Prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley. But 'MBS' began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of excess and about the brutality of his regime began to slip out. Then there was the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent in the Saudi royal family by holding three hundred members in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including the purchase of a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his flexing of autocratic muscle. "This is as close to the truth, to the real story of the corruption, vulgarities, horrors, and lies of the Kingdom and its current despot as we are likely to get. It also can be read as a Shakespearean story of utter greed." - Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command

Cómo un joven empresario logró estafar más de 5 mil millones de dólares justo debajo de las narices de la industria financiera mundial. Una investigación sin precedentes escrita por los galardonados periodistas de The Wall Street Journal, Tom Wright y Bradley Hope, sobre el fraude financiero más grande del siglo XXI. El polvo aún tenía que asentarse en la crisis financiera mundial en 2009 cuando un improbable graduado de Wharton puso en marcha un fraude de agallas y magnitud sin precedentes, uno que simbolizaría la próxima gran amenaza para el sistema financiero global. Los aspectos prácticos del plan eran sorprendentemente simples: Jho Low persuadió al primer ministro de Malasia para que creara un fondo de inversión que dirigiría desde las sombras; recaudó más de 10 mil millones de dólares de inversores globales con la ayuda de Goldman Sachs y otras instituciones, y durante la siguiente media década desviaron no menos de 5 mil millones de dólares. Dicho dinero fue utilizado para financiar elecciones, comprar propiedades de lujo en Londres, Nueva York y Los Ángeles; producir películas de Hollywood, incluida El lobo de Wall Street, y hacer fiestas llenas de champaña por todo el mundo. Su generosidad también le produjo amistades con actores de Hollywood, como Leonardo DiCaprio, modelos de Victoria's Secret, como Miranda Kerr, e incluso con un miembro del círculo íntimo del presidente Obama. Lo más asombroso fue que nadie pareció notarlo, ni los bancos globales, como Goldman y J. P. Morgan, que se hicieron de la vista gorda frente a las oscuras transferencias de cientos de millones de dólares; ni tampoco los auditores internacionales, banqueros centrales ni vigilantes del sistema financiero oficial. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this New York Times bestseller about the 1MDB scandal exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios). Now a #1 international bestseller, BILLION DOLLAR WHALE is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly, starred review), 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.

El Fraude del Siglo / Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

Rekonstrukcja konfliktów na szczytach władzy w Arabii Saudyjskiej pokazuje, że polityka może być bardziej fascynująca niż Gra o Tron Walka o sukcesję w Arabii Saudyjskiej wyłania charyzmatycznego księcia koronnego Muhammada ibn Salmana, znanego również jako MBS, który wydaje się przywódcą nowoczesnym i otwartym na reformy społeczno-gospodarcze. To jednak tylko pozory. W rzeczywistości 35-letni Muhammad ibn Salman to brutalny, ekscentryczny i bajecznie bogaty człowiek, który z pomocą konsultantów i ekspertów od public relations pogrywa z całym światem. Tłumiąc sprzeciw, nie waha się przed porwaniem i przetrzymywaniem przez kilka miesięcy w hotelu Ritz-Carlton trzystu osób (w tym prominentnych członków saudyjskiej rodziny królewskiej i biznesmenów). Nie dba o to, jak zareaguje świat na przejawy jego skrajnej brutalności czy ekscentryzmu. Za nic ma zarzuty o zlecenie zabójstwa dziennikarza Dżamala Chaszukdżiego w Stambule. Liczy się tylko władza. Muhammad ibn Salman w sposób konsekwentny i przemyślany buduje potęgę ekonomiczno-gospodarczą, wykorzystując ropę na rzecz ochrony wojskowej. Dzięki koneksjom z przywódcami politycznymi (miał bliskie relacje z Białym Domem za pośrednictwem zięcia prezydenta Trumpa Jareda Kushnera) i biznesowymi (think tankami z Doliny Krzemowej i ważnymi postaciami z Wall Street) zwiększa swoje wpływy na Bliskim Wschodzie, ale również na całym świecie. Arabia Saudyjska – państwo upadające, magnes dla islamskich ekstremistów czy potęga ekonomiczno-gospodarcza dyktująca warunki przemysłu naftowego? Wielokrotnie nagradzani reporterzy Wall Street Journal przedstawiają zupełnie nowe spojrzenie na kulisy funkcjonowania jednej z najpotężniejszych rodzin królewskich na świecie.

Ropa i krew. Walka o przywództwo w Arabii Saudyjskiej i wpływy na świecie

O QUE É NECESSÁRIO PARA ROUBAR US$5 BILHÕES? Em 2009, quando a crise financeira ainda estava presente, um gentil e educado graduado da Wharton pôs em prática uma fraude de audácia e magnitude sem precedentes ― a qual representaria a próxima grande ameaça ao sistema financeiro global. Seu nome? Jho Low, um homem cujo comportamento era tão absurdo que parecia quase impossível existir alguém como ele. Superficialmente, Jho Low parecia ser tímido, mas nos bastidores era persuasivo, eloquente e almejava ascensão social. Assim que terminou a faculdade, Low persuadiu o primeiro-ministro da Malásia, Najib Razak, a criar um fundo de investimento, conhecido como 1MDB. Comandando anonimamente o fundo, Low levantou mais de US$10 bilhões com o auxílio do Goldman Sachs e outros. Durante cinco anos, desviou bilhões de dólares para financiar eleições, adquirir imóveis de luxo, produzir filmes hollywoodianos, incluindo O Lobo de Wall Street, e dar festas regadas a champanhe ao redor do mundo. A generosidade de Low o colocou no centro de um mundo que incluía celebridades, como Leonardo DiCaprio e Jamie Foxx, modelos famosas, como Miranda Kerr, e até mesmo doações importantes para a campanha do ex-presidente Obama. Ainda mais surpreendente era que ninguém parecia notar ― nem os bancos globais, que aparentemente ignoravam as transferências suspeitas de centenas de milhões de dólares, nem as entidades fiscalizadoras do sistema financeiro. Tom Wright e Bradley Hope, repórteres premiados do Wall Street Journal, publicaram dezenas de matérias sobre o caso do 1MDB. Pela primeira vez, neste livro, eles revelam a verdade completa de um dos maiores golpes financeiros da história. Ao lado de Liar's Poker e Den of Thieves, O Blefe de um Bilhão de Dólares entrará para o rol de clássicos que narram, de forma angustiante, a arrogância e a ganância do mundo financeiro. ELOGIOS A O BLEFE DE UM BILHÃO DE DÓLARES: "Leitura estonteante! Um suspense verídico que flui como um filme hollywoodiano, O Blefe de um Bilhão de Dólares rastreia as façanhas do mais imprevisível e misterioso mandante da história. Jho Low é um Gatsby com o dobro da conta bancária e dez vezes mais ambição. As histórias que circundam suas proezas são de prender a atenção!" ― BEN MEZRICH, autor de The Accidental Billionaires e Bringing Down the House, best-sellers do New York Times "Até mesmo o mais experiente escritor de ficção teria dificuldade em dar vida ao protagonista corrupto e intrigante de O Blefe de um Bilhão de Dólares. A forma cativante como Bradley Hope e Tom Wright retratam Jho Low e seus facilitadores ao longo da crise financeira irá fascinar e ao mesmo tempo enraivecer o leitor." ― SHEELAH KOLHATKAR, redatora do New Yorker e autora de Black Edge, best-seller do New York Times "Uma história impressionante e prodigiosamente relatada sobre um polêmico Gatsby moderno e sua audaciosa fraude." ― JESSE EISINGER, repórter da ProPublica, vencedor do Prêmio Pulitzer e autor de The Chickenshit Club "O Blefe de um Bilhão de Dólares vai além do que simplesmente analisar uma fraude financeira de proporções épicas; o livro guia o leitor ao cerne de um golpe que foi planejado por anos." ― GREGORY A. COLEMAN, agente especial aposentado do FBI e agente da investigação "Lobo de Wall Street"

Bradley Hope

About

Books

Join the club