Anansi's Gold

The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World

De: Yepoka Yeebo

Narrado por: Jude Owusu

Bloomsbury presents Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo, read by Jude Owusu.

New Yorker Best Book of the Year

"A fascinating story brilliantly told.”—The Boston Globe * "A non-fiction masterpiece."—Philadelphia Inquirer

The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century’s longest-running and most spectacular frauds.

When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn’t already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation’s inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country’s gold overseas.

Into this big lie stepped one of history’s most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece—if only you would “invest” in Blay-Miezah’s fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and ‘80s, he and his accomplices—including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon’s former attorney general—scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam “one of the most fascinating—and lucrative—in modern history.”

In Anansi’s Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah’s ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana’s missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call “history” writes itself into being, one lie at a time.

Reseñas de la Crítica

[T]his little-known story unfolds like Catch Me if You Can.

Reading Anansi’s Gold is like watching a heist movie … all about improvisation, unforced error, unlikely escape.

Yepoka Yeebo’s riveting Anansi’s Gold traces the outlines of Blay-Miezah’s life, shedding light on how he perpetrated his deceptions for years while living in incredible opulence. The author delves into archives across the Atlantic, digs up criminal proceedings and conducts interviews with victims and associates alike, in the process telling us not just about Blay-Miezah, but about the world that enabled him to thrive.

Skillfully interweaves archival material, F.B.I. records, and interviews to recount the saga of [a] con man’s career, and to reflect on how lies can be leveraged in the creation of national histories.

The sprawling story of Blay-Miezah’s outsize life and wayward career is told with mordant aplomb by first-time author Yepoka Yeebo … While [the book] reflects a daunting amount of research, it reads like a picaresque novel … Compelling.

An enthralling rags-to-stolen-riches story, a thrilling true-crime caper, and a sharp indictment of a world that allows scammers like Blay-Miezah to thrive.

A wild tale . . . Yeebo’s substantial research — based on interviews, archives, government reports, and the like — is nothing less than awe inspiring, and her prose is careful and self-assured, often outraged, sometimes dryly amused . . . Anansi’s Gold is a fascinating story brilliantly told.

Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time.

In her thrilling new book, Yepoka Yeebo tells the jaw-dropping story of a man behind a scam called ‘one of the most fascinating – and lucrative – in modern history’ … the ever-proliferating grifter-lit bookshelf is on the verge of collapsing under its own weight, but Yeebo’s contribution to the category stands out … meticulously researched.

A wild, juicy ride.

Stylish and substantive, Yepoka Yeebo’s Anansi’s Gold is a non-fiction masterpiece, artfully weaving Blay-Miezah’s remarkable exploits into the fabric of history. Highly recommended.

Rigorously researched and beautifully written.

In this absorbing true crime narrative, Yeebo details the fascinating story of this audacious con artist.

Absorbing . . . A colorful, eye-opening account.

Yeebo pulls off something near-magical here. She excavates an overlooked historical narrative as juicy as any true-crime blockbuster, where every detail is both fastidiously researched and completely over-the-top—one of Blay-Miezah’s major adversaries in his quest to scam? Former child star Shirley Temple Black, of course!—while also conveying how the colonial system nurtured and turbo-charged this dysfunction.

Increíble how greed fueled so many to lie, cheat and steal.

Sad this case is replayed in so many countries yet this is the most heinous guy as lying is second nature to him.

We see the history of lies and how despots and crackpots all joined in greed. Dictators and rulers all knew about the big lie - yet perpetrated it for personal gain.

All meeting nations have some variation on this con - Ecuador with Rafael Correa, Venezuela with Maduro and so many other countless cheats that have used politics and money to cheat.

Great book!

Great story on how the world works

The message in the epilogue deserves a few books. John Akah Bay-Miezah was not half as shady as Charles Ponzi or Bernard Madoff yet because of Africanslike him, Africa continues to be seen as more corrupt and too risky for investments. It's irrational to say the least.

Great story nonetheless.

Very well written and an easy read

I wish the reader would take the time to learn how to pronounce names of places. He was off on almost all and it’s not that difficult to ask for help enunciating words.

Fantastic story telling

I’d never heard of this man and story and I’m a 45 year of Ghanaian. This was a very engaging listen. Very well written.

It’s a page turner!

Fast paced with interesting historical context . For someone who keenly followed politics in the 70’s and 80’s, I found in this book a lot of background information that clarifies and puts in perspective certain aspects of the long running Blay Miezah saga, Ghana’s political history and the looting by the colonial powers.