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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
This book is a mess, surprisingly. The writing is *beyond* awful. Just terrible. Plus, there are way too many threads, characters, stories, etc. to follow. Disappointing b/c this is such an important topic. But it is pretty much unreadable. I cannot believe the author is a journalist and writes for a living. It was like he was bending over backwards to write indecipherable sentences.
Quite a lot of detail to read and remember
Sad, the malignancy of those who seek unearned advantage over their peers.
Tom Burgis' book on how criminal proceeds flow around the globe is by far the most gripping and readable account of the subject I have yet encountered. The Financial Times journalist weaves a surprisingly intelligible narrative out of the, by design, incorrigible structures created to mask the laundering of money on the global scale. As Burgis describes it, this system enriches professionals in the West, entrenches despotic regimes outside the West and robs all populations of their wealth and resources. Accordingly, we should all be much more concerned about it than we are. The day I finished this book, an alert on my phone flashed up - an Economist article on precisely the subject of global money laundering. As the article reports a professor of anti-corruption stating: "Global efforts to stamp out money-laundering have, if anything, waned over the past five years" (Article: The war against money-laundering is being lost, 12th April 2021). It will come as no surprise, then, that Burgis' book lacks a happy ending but that makes this brave piece of journalism all the more important for it.
By far the stand out feature of this book is how it develops near novelistic characters out of the panoply of individuals it chronicles, from the tragic Nigel who blew the whistle on a crooked Swiss bank but whose warnings were ignored by UK regulators, to Semyon Mogilevich - the Brainy Don - key moneyman in Russia, to the terrifying Victor Hanna - a man without a past who orchestrated dodgy dealings in Africa on behalf of Central Asian billionaires.
The stories are told in chapters ranging from two pages to dozens as Burgis paints a picture of the complex financial intrigues designed to enrich the few at the (literal) cost of the many. Central to the corruption are the ex-Soviet billionaires who have plundered their countries, with a particular focus on those linked to Kazakhstan. What should disturb Western readers is the value and willingness of our own legal, accounting and banking systems to serve such individuals. We are told about the lawyers who hire private detectives to pursue individuals on the run from their own, tyrannical governments; PR firms who work to ensure enemies of the state feature only negatively in Google results; and an assorted array of former spies who provide services and expertise for enormous fees.
This work reminds me of another recent book on Central Asian corruption, Dictators Without Borders by Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw. It is instructive to look at the differences in approach between the two books, whose overall messages are broadly similar: that the West is complicit in the ransacking and despotism of regimes it hypocritically labels as corrupt.
Cooley and Heathershaw's book takes something of an itemised approach, analysing a series of schemes across the Central Asian region and revealing the global money laundering system by way of a set of examples. The examples themselves are, as a result, quite easy to keep track of as they are laid out in just a single chapter and described in detail. By contrast, Burgis focusses on an interconnected web of corruption and molds out of all this one continuous narrative.
This extremely ambitious approach has two clear benefits: it prevents the book appearing too much like a textbook. Cooley and Heathershaw comes off quite dry whereas Burgis reads like a white collar Game of Thrones, with its immense cast of characters, unexpected twists and byzantine politics. Secondly, it gives the reader a sense of the unbelievable complexity of the kleptocratic regimes it describes; instead of a post-hoc description of a particular ruse, we are whisked through the conflicting, confusing, multifaceted events almost as if they were happening around us. This lends the book an immediacy and 'lived' quality I've not seen in other books of this type. It really is begging to be turned into a mini-series.
But the telling of such complex interlinking stories is also the book's biggest problem. It is virtually impossible, particularly towards the start of the book, not to get lost. As I said above, this is almost part of the point as the reader is dragged bemused through a world of alternative facts and deception. But - assuming there was no post-modern playing with the reader in this manner intended - I have to peg this as a (modest) failure on the book's part. It is even more of a shame because it could have been remedied with a few summaries scattered throughout and generally better signposting, particular at the start of the book. Knowing roughly the contour of the story before setting out would have been of immense help in getting through the challenging early pages where many, many names are thrown at you thick and fast.
This is the only drawback, however, to what is an otherwise exceptional book on a subject about which there is far too little public awareness and consequent outrage. And while global money laundering may appear far-removed from most people's everyday lives, Burgis makes clear why we should care. When describing the general approach to money laundering he remarks that:
"If anyone challenged your story, you had to destablise the truth. Maybe this had happened, maybe that had happened, who could say? An objective truth, reachable by honest enquiry? No such thing existed."
While this quote describes money launderers, it could just as easily be a description of the so-called 'post truth' political discourse of the late 2010s and 2020s. That Burgis ultimately links the flows of dirty money to Donald Trump should, therefore, come as no surprise. As I stated at the outset, this book will not leave you with a smile on your face, but it is a valiant attempt to draw attention not only to corruption but also to deeper, more pernicious trends in society that anyone who believes in standards of evidence, objective enquiry and, ultimately, meaningful facts should be concerned about.
By far the stand out feature of this book is how it develops near novelistic characters out of the panoply of individuals it chronicles, from the tragic Nigel who blew the whistle on a crooked Swiss bank but whose warnings were ignored by UK regulators, to Semyon Mogilevich - the Brainy Don - key moneyman in Russia, to the terrifying Victor Hanna - a man without a past who orchestrated dodgy dealings in Africa on behalf of Central Asian billionaires.
The stories are told in chapters ranging from two pages to dozens as Burgis paints a picture of the complex financial intrigues designed to enrich the few at the (literal) cost of the many. Central to the corruption are the ex-Soviet billionaires who have plundered their countries, with a particular focus on those linked to Kazakhstan. What should disturb Western readers is the value and willingness of our own legal, accounting and banking systems to serve such individuals. We are told about the lawyers who hire private detectives to pursue individuals on the run from their own, tyrannical governments; PR firms who work to ensure enemies of the state feature only negatively in Google results; and an assorted array of former spies who provide services and expertise for enormous fees.
This work reminds me of another recent book on Central Asian corruption, Dictators Without Borders by Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw. It is instructive to look at the differences in approach between the two books, whose overall messages are broadly similar: that the West is complicit in the ransacking and despotism of regimes it hypocritically labels as corrupt.
Cooley and Heathershaw's book takes something of an itemised approach, analysing a series of schemes across the Central Asian region and revealing the global money laundering system by way of a set of examples. The examples themselves are, as a result, quite easy to keep track of as they are laid out in just a single chapter and described in detail. By contrast, Burgis focusses on an interconnected web of corruption and molds out of all this one continuous narrative.
This extremely ambitious approach has two clear benefits: it prevents the book appearing too much like a textbook. Cooley and Heathershaw comes off quite dry whereas Burgis reads like a white collar Game of Thrones, with its immense cast of characters, unexpected twists and byzantine politics. Secondly, it gives the reader a sense of the unbelievable complexity of the kleptocratic regimes it describes; instead of a post-hoc description of a particular ruse, we are whisked through the conflicting, confusing, multifaceted events almost as if they were happening around us. This lends the book an immediacy and 'lived' quality I've not seen in other books of this type. It really is begging to be turned into a mini-series.
But the telling of such complex interlinking stories is also the book's biggest problem. It is virtually impossible, particularly towards the start of the book, not to get lost. As I said above, this is almost part of the point as the reader is dragged bemused through a world of alternative facts and deception. But - assuming there was no post-modern playing with the reader in this manner intended - I have to peg this as a (modest) failure on the book's part. It is even more of a shame because it could have been remedied with a few summaries scattered throughout and generally better signposting, particular at the start of the book. Knowing roughly the contour of the story before setting out would have been of immense help in getting through the challenging early pages where many, many names are thrown at you thick and fast.
This is the only drawback, however, to what is an otherwise exceptional book on a subject about which there is far too little public awareness and consequent outrage. And while global money laundering may appear far-removed from most people's everyday lives, Burgis makes clear why we should care. When describing the general approach to money laundering he remarks that:
"If anyone challenged your story, you had to destablise the truth. Maybe this had happened, maybe that had happened, who could say? An objective truth, reachable by honest enquiry? No such thing existed."
While this quote describes money launderers, it could just as easily be a description of the so-called 'post truth' political discourse of the late 2010s and 2020s. That Burgis ultimately links the flows of dirty money to Donald Trump should, therefore, come as no surprise. As I stated at the outset, this book will not leave you with a smile on your face, but it is a valiant attempt to draw attention not only to corruption but also to deeper, more pernicious trends in society that anyone who believes in standards of evidence, objective enquiry and, ultimately, meaningful facts should be concerned about.
Quite hard to follow, but I'm not sure if that is because it jumps around a lot or because of the large cast of characters with very difficult names. However, I got enough out of it to see how high up the corruption goes, and it is pretty shocking stuff. Highly recommended, but take notes as you go along!
This is a must-read for anyone interested in money laundering, corruption, Russia, or Kazakhstan. Lots of new information on these topics.
3 stars because it's a bit dry in portions and it wasn't always clear who the author was referring to.
3 stars because it's a bit dry in portions and it wasn't always clear who the author was referring to.
informative
slow-paced
Very good book on corruption and the love of money over everything else.
Those two seem to be more prevalent more-and-more.
I found this book fairly timely and upsetting.
But well researched and written!
4.5/5
Those two seem to be more prevalent more-and-more.
I found this book fairly timely and upsetting.
But well researched and written!
4.5/5
informative
medium-paced
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced