Comments on: Guide me to well written books about financial crimes

Question: Guide me to well written books about financial crimes

reenum — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:49:17 -0800

I want to read more about financial crimes, real and fictitious. Any recommendations?

I just read Charlie Wilson's War, which talked about the different ways the CIA laundered money to get it to the mujahideen. I've also read a couple of books about BCCI.

I want to read more about financial crimes. Jewel heists, covert operations, etc. Anything where money is being concealed and funneled to clandestine sources qualifies.

I prefer non-fiction, but well written fiction would also be up my alley.

So I ask the Hive Mind: what should I read next?

By: up in the old hotel

up in the old hotel — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:07:33 -0800

Den of Thieves, James B. Stewart
Ghost Wars, Steve Coll
Anything by John Le Carre

By: BobbyVan

BobbyVan — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:11:09 -0800

Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law, and Became the World's Most Sought-After Corporate Criminal

By: elendil71

elendil71 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:20:10 -0800

Perhaps not exactly what you're looking for, but try Smartest Guys In The Room. About the rise and fall of Enron. The film is okay too - in fact, it is required viewing at my company. I wont comment on the irony of that.

By: triggerfinger

triggerfinger — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:28:43 -0800

Whether it would be considered well-written fiction is maybe up in the air, but Killing Floor by Lee Child is a thriller that happens to contain a lot of very interesting info about counterfeiting.

By: timsteil

timsteil — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:48:43 -0800

Great Experiment

By: radioamy

radioamy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:52:29 -0800

I read Final Accounting, which is an insider's account of the Arthur Anderson (Enron) scandal. It was actually very interesting.

By: vincele

vincele — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:14:14 -0800

I second the Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind

Fascinating, big beefy book. I read all 800 or so pages in a weekend. The documentary pales in comparison, in my humble opinion.

By: Phred182

Phred182 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:43:48 -0800

Legacy of Ashes, makes Charlie Wilson's cash look like a rounding error.
Offshore, by William Brittain-Catlin.
Traders Guns and Money describes how derivatives are used to help defraud investors: concealing losses, moving liabilities off balance-sheet, etc. Many of these are permissible accounting manipulations, but still.

By: velvet winter

velvet winter — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:00:43 -0800

A few non-fiction books on the subject of accounting fraud:

Stolen Without a Gun: Confessions from Inside History's Biggest Accounting Fraud - the Collapse of MCI WorldCom by Walter Pavlo Jr. and Neil Weinberg. This one sounds closest to what you're looking for.

If you're also interested in the history of accounting as a profession, and its relation to financial crimes, check out Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited a Public Trust by Mike Brewster (a journalist).

And if you're geeky enough to take an interest in the technical side of how to uncover accounting fraud, try The Financial Numbers Game: Detecting Creative Accounting Practices by Charles W. Mulford and Eugene E. Comisky or Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports by Howard Schilit.

Happy reading!

By: jourman2

jourman2 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:22:39 -0800

There's also The Number by Alex Berenson - who was an investigative financial reporter for the New York Times. It's a pretty cool book - he goes through a whole bunch of scandals and talks about how and why they happened. Good read.

By: whatzit

whatzit — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:40:07 -0800

I can't believe no one has mentioned Catch me if you can. (oh yeah it was also made into a movie).

By: kjars

kjars — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:11:51 -0800

I'll recommend another Enron book, "Conspiracy of Fools" and well as "The Informant" both by Kurt Eichenwald. The Informant tells the story of a price fixing conspiracy at Archer Daniels Midland. Quite good reading.