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Billion Dollar Whale  By  cover art

Billion Dollar Whale

By: Bradley Hope,Tom Wright
Narrated by: Will Collyer
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Publisher's summary

Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this "thrilling" (Bill Gates) New York Times best seller exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios).

Now a number-one international best seller, 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 US 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Bradley Hope and Tom Wright (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

A Fortune magazine Best Book of 2018

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, New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down 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

Featured Article: Catch Our Grift with These Tales of Female Frauds, Scammers, and Cons


When it comes to cons of the criminal variety, women often fly under the radar. And when it comes to pulling off high-level, multifaceted schemes, women continue to be underestimated. But with enough confidence to remain undetected, female con artists, fraudsters, and grifters have scammed their way to infamy, racking up dollars, favors, and fame along the way. The stories they leave behind make for some of the most intriguing cases of all time.

What listeners say about Billion Dollar Whale

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Couldn’t stop listening!

I just finished listening to Bad blood and didn’t think this book would come close. It did and may be better. It is just an incredible story. Possibly the greatest heist of all time.

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70 people found this helpful

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Great story, poor narration and drags on

It is a fascinating story but it seemed to go on and on and I was relieved when it was over. Also, the narrator wasn't very good and mispronounced several words.

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62 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

For anyone who loves stories of white collar crime

I am a huge fan of the podcast Swindled, which primarily covers stories of white collar crime and corporate scandals. The podcast went on hiatus between seasons and I needed something to hold me over! That's when I took to Audible and found this book. I can definitely say it filled that void and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The story is about a Malaysian man who schemed his way to billions of dollars through political conspiracy, bribery, and loopholes, mostly to impress Hollywood celebrities and make rich people think he was cool.

If you're like me and enjoy infuriating stories of greed and corruption you will love this one!
(You will also love Swindled podcast, go check it out.)

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57 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good but it drags

The story was good, especially with it being true. However, I felt my mind wondering to other things while listening to it and wishing the last 2-3 hours of it would just hurry up and be over.

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44 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

This explained so much to me

I look forward to the inevitable movie. I'd like to see a documentary like The Smartest Guys in the Room made from this.

The writing here didn't grab me so much that I'd recommend this to everyone, but I did learn a lot about an under-reported topic.

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39 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting story, unnecessarily long

Overall, yeah it’s a crazy story - could have been written in half the time - very repetitive - basically after reading a couple of short articles online you will understand this whole story. Seriously - tread Wikipedia onJo Lho and a few other players in the scheme and you’ll get all of the story without spending 12 hours of your life in it.

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34 people found this helpful

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Long and detailed but still worth it

Details are greater than needed to get the story so it was a long listen, but still worth it to hear this unbelievable fraud.

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34 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

a must read, 90% accurate but...

A must read but for a more accurate depiction of the 1MDB saga, read "The Sarawak Report

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26 people found this helpful

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Soooooo Good!

First of all this topic is always one of my favorites I love learning about things that really happened especially when it comes to the realm of Finance. Often with books of this subject it can be a little overwhelming and a little too much information and not enough story, but not in the case of billion dollar whale. This story is exceptionally well written and keeps you enthralled from beginning to end, lots of facts tied up in a well-written storyline the only thing that makes it complicated is jho low himself with all his financial antics. Probably one of the best books I've read of its kind.

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20 people found this helpful

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All too common theft at a colossal level

Excellent book highlighting a great heist of billions of dollars by, corruption, perception, and just outright thievery. The author put a lot of time collating information from investigations, witnesses, and anonymous sources.

What was most interesting was not the scale of the stealing that went, and is still going on, but the celebrity hanger-on-ers, that enjoyed and benefited from the lavish gifts such criminals had to offer. No one wanted to know where the money came from. I would say they probably did but didn’t care.

An all too common occurrence in the modern world where disparity between the haves and have nots correlates with the unethical, and illegal white colour crimes of bankers and most philanthropists. Ironic that the galvanising of the movie The Wolf of Wall-street was partly paid for by the new wolf of Asia. The sad truth of the new superheroes of the 21st century.

No one gets indicted unless they are reckless, and this guy was as reckless as they come. For the rest its business as usual. Interestingly Jho Low “the whale” in hiding is currently trying to cut a deal with the US Gov. where he may keep the Billions he stole from the Malaysian people. As usual the inferred complicity of bankers such as Goldman are only hidden by the Lawyers they put at their defence, where they only have to pay 5 billion + as penalty, to get a no guilty verdict.

Highly recommended book, that will be looked at, in history as just another piece when the whales went nuts, borrowed so much, and have the system crash on them, at the cost of tax payers and future generations.

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14 people found this helpful