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The Wizard of Lies
- Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 16 hrs
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Publisher's summary
Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history? These questions have fascinated people ever since the news broke about the respected New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion through a fraud that lasted for decades. Many have speculated about what might have happened or what must have happened, but no reporter has been able to get the full story - until now.
In The Wizard of Lies, Diana B. Henriques of the New York Times - who has led the paper's coverage of the Madoff scandal since the day the story broke - has written the definitive book on the man and his scheme, drawing on unprecedented access and more than 100 interviews with people at all levels and on all sides of the crime, including Madoff's first interviews for publication since his arrest. Henriques also provides vivid details from the various lawsuits, government investigations, and court filings that will explode the myths that have come to surround the story.
A true-life financial thriller, The Wizard of Lies contrasts Madoff's remarkable rise on Wall Street, where he became one of the country's most trusted and respected traders, with dramatic scenes from his accelerating slide toward self-destruction. It is also the most complete account of the heartbreaking personal disasters and landmark legal battles triggered by Madoff's downfall - the suicides, business failures, fractured families, shuttered charities - and the clear lessons this timeless scandal offers to Washington, Wall Street, and Main Street.
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By: Roger Lowenstein
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Good for the Money
- My Fight to Pay Back America
- By: Bob Benmosche
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2009, at the peak of the financial crisis, AIG - the American insurance behemoth - was sinking fast. It was the peg upon which the nation hung its ire and resentment during the financial crisis: the pinnacle of Wall Street arrogance and greed. When Bob Benmosche climbed aboard as CEO, it was widely assumed that he would go down with his ship. In mere months, he turned things around, pulling AIG from the brink of financial collapse and restoring its profitability.
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Worthwhile, informative, and just short of inspiring
- By Preston on 11-17-21
By: Bob Benmosche
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The Bank That Lived a Little
- Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market
- By: Philip Augar
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on unparalleled access to those involved, and told with compelling pace and drama, The Bank That Lived a Little is the story of one of the most familiar names on the British high street since Big Bang in 1986. Philip Augar describes in detail three decades of boardroom intrigue driven by ruthless ambition, grandiose dreams and a desire for wealth. It is a tale of a struggle for long-term supremacy between rival strategies and their adherents.
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Global superstar bankers under light-touch gov
- By Philo on 12-21-18
By: Philip Augar
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Tangled Webs
- How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff
- By: James B. Stewart
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In Tangled Webs, James B. Stewart reveals in vivid detail the consequences of the perjury epidemic that has swept our country, undermining the very foundation of our courts.With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, Tangled Webs goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff. Tangled Webs reaffirms the importance of truth.
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in great detail
- By Andy on 06-22-11
By: James B. Stewart
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The Money Culture
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1980s was the most outrageous and turbulent era in the financial market since the crash of ’29, not only on Wall Street but around the world. Michael Lewis, as a trainee at Salomon Brothers in New York and as an investment banker and later financial journalist, was uniquely positioned to chronicle the ambition and folly that fueled the decade. In these trenchant, often hilarious true tales we meet the colorful movers and shakers who commanded the headlines and rewrote the rules.
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Not the normal great Michael Lewis
- By Me on 05-12-12
By: Michael Lewis
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Bad Paper
- Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld
- By: Jake Halpern
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper" - the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadow land, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place.
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An Examination of Bad Debts; its Buyers & Sellers
- By Darwin8u on 08-22-16
By: Jake Halpern
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The Asylum
- The Renegades Who Hijacked the World's Oil Market
- By: Leah McGrath Goodman
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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They were a band of outsiders unable to get jobs with New York's gilded financial establishment. They would go on to corner the world's multitrillion-dollar oil market, reaping unimaginable riches while bringing the economy to its knees. Meet the self-anointed kings of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In some ways, they are everything you would expect them to be: a secretive, members-only club of men and women who live lavish lifestyles; cavort with politicians, strippers, and celebrities; and blissfully jacked up oil prices to nearly $150 a barrel while profiting off the misery of the working class.
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A far better book than its come-on implies
- By Philo on 01-05-14
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The King of Content
- Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire
- By: Keach Hagey
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Sumner Murray Redstone, once feared as the “mad genius” of media who would dump his CEOs for mere wobbles in his companies’ stock price, had built one of the world’s greatest media empires through a series of audacious takeovers constructed to ensure that he always maintained control. Today he controls 80 percent of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS, meaning that on a whim he could replace the entire boards of two public companies with a combined value of $40 billion.
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Feels biased. Well researched, but not engaging.
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-19
By: Keach Hagey
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Iceland's Secret
- The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Con
- By: Jared Bibler
- Narrated by: Jared Bibler
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Massachusetts, Jared Bibler relocated to Iceland in 2004 only to find himself in the middle of an unprecedented financial crisis a handful of years later. Personally wiped out and seeking to uncover the truth about a collapse that brought the pastoral country to its knees, he became the lead investigator into some of the largest financial crimes in the world. This work helped Iceland to famously become the only country to jail its bank CEOs in the wake of the 2008 crisis.
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BIG Story on a Small Island
- By Charles on 01-25-24
By: Jared Bibler
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Once in Golconda
- A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1928
- By: John Brooks
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Once in Golconda is a dramatic chronicle of the breathtaking rise, devastating fall, and painstaking rebirth of Wall Street in the years between the wars. Focusing on the lives and fortunes of some of the era's most memorable traders, bankers, boosters, and frauds, John Brooks brings to vivid life all the ruthlessness, greed, and reckless euphoria of the '20s bull market, the desperation of the days leading up to the crash of '29, and the bitterness of the years that followed.
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A must read for investors
- By Brad Gillespie on 06-07-15
By: John Brooks
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Horrible!!
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Awesome book
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As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy.
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Excellent!
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Billion Dollar Whale
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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.
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Couldn’t stop listening!
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By: Bradley Hope, and others
What listeners say about The Wizard of Lies
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Angela willis
- 03-18-13
The best of 3 madoff books
Where does The Wizard of Lies rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I have listened to the whistleblower's book and the daughter-in-law's memoir & now The Wiz of Lies. The other 2 books were good - whistleblower's was very good - but the Wiz of Lies is the best. It gave a very overall, balanced look at madoff & explained complicated concepts so that the general public could understand them.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Reed
- 05-07-12
The second act is just as interesting as the first
The Wizard of Lies tells the story of the Madoff Ponzi scheme, but its a story in two acts. The first act is predictable; how Bernie Madoff got started, how he developed his scheme and how he managed to fool very sophisticated investors into believing that consistent, steady returns could be obtained without ever incurring a loss. That story is worth the trip alone, but it's really Act Two in the book that is equally compelling. That portion of the book tells the story of what happened after Madoff was caught (or gave himself up - he was never really "caught" although he should have been many times before his ultimate demise). That story tells the continued greed of the defrauded investors, with the "net winners" claiming that they were entitled to what turned out to be ill-gotten gains at the expense of the "net losers." The efforts of the bankruptcy trustee to recover as much money as possible for those who lost money given to Madoff is as fascinating, and complex as the story of the original scheme. Sorting out the truly "innocent" victims from the opportunists was no easy task.
The narration by Pam Ward is smooth and she keeps the narrative going. As so little of the book is "dialogue" she does not resort to different voices to help the listener distinguish the participants. However, with slight inflection changes, she is able to convey the essence of some of the key players, for example, the arrogance of the two original accountants who profited off of Madoff's scheme and left before the house of cards came crashing down.
There are some shortcomings in the book. Madoff's purported investment strategy is mis-described by the author at some points, so if you already know the finer points of option trading, you will be slightly jarred to realize that the writer may not fully understand what Madoff claimed to be doing. However, for the listener not schooled in options, this is a minor point and should not distract from the story.
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18 people found this helpful
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- AmericanDreamer
- 04-01-18
The audio was horrible
I quit listening after about 15 minutes because I couldn’t stand the narrator’s voice. Ended up just buying a printed copy of the book and reading it.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Julia
- 08-06-17
The Madoff Story, the facts, no frills.
You cannot fault Diana B. Henriques on her extensive and thorough research. She does not paint Bernie as devil or saint. She gives us the facts and plenty of them. I think that anyone who is intrigued by Bernie Madoff and this virtually impossible conn that he managed to 'carry off' for may decades will have read the books and vary many articles about this strange creature who was either bordering on genius or evil. So many of these various writings are filled with emotion. The Wizard Of Lies reads like a story book. And oh what a story.
Personally prior to reading this I thought that I knew quiet a lot bout the Madoff family. In retrospect with the benefit of hindsight I I now know that I knew nothing.
This family suffered dearly because of the head of their family. He was without a doubt in my opinion a man without scruples. He caused a tsunami then walked away and left his family to pick up the pieces.
This book is clear, concise and gets to the point.
Excellent performance by Pam Ward
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8 people found this helpful
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- Rick
- 02-11-14
If It Sounds too Good to be True…
Where do I start on this one? Recently I have found myself watching American Greed on MSNBC which shows some pretty interesting tales about scammers and con-men, making a living off the hard work of others retirements, investment portfolios and cold hard cash. It’s interesting to me because I still wonder how people get duped like they do when there is so much out there on investing and retirement which would lead me to believe that even a high school graduate should be safe from these predators. Maybe not. People like Bernie Madoff are professional con-men because they’ve honed their craft after years of manipulation and confidence in their victims. Social class has no boundary for these professionals and the evidence in Madoff’s $60+ Billion scam is clear.
A few years back I read a book about the real Ponzi (Charles) written by Mitchell Zuckoff whom outlined the story behind the moniker. In his case, he genuinely started out straight as an arrow, trying to make money by buying and selling Postage overseas and selling it back in the United States. When it didn’t work, well, he had to do something and the scheme was born. Many years later Madoff, following a similar code of ethic, shocked the world when his billion-dollar scheme unfolded.
The story was interesting but it seemed the entire tale could have been told in the first and last chapter of the book. The story opens with a decent outline of what was happening and how he turned himself into a crook and then how he decides to turn himself in. And the last 1-2 chapters talks about him, his family and friends, and how they all cope(d) with the ordeal. It was really quite interesting. The 10 or so hours of dialog in middle which seems to go on and on about who was affected and who wasn’t, who was fighting the schemes involvement and who wasn’t, and who should get paid from the proceeds of Madoff assets and who didn’t was mind numbing at times. It just kept going on and on. And it didn’t help to have a reader sounding more like a scorned lecturer than anything, driving home points from the story in her condescending voice which was very taxing at times. Maybe that was just me.
The book was OK and I’m not disappointed I took a chance on it. I would recommend the title only if you have the patience to get thru the hours of minutia that make up the bulk of the background story. Oh sure, there will always be another con man and there will always be people who would rather place their money with them than in a name like Fidelity or Vanguard. But there will never be another $60 billion scam artist like Madoff or will there?
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-26-17
Pam Ward is a superb reader
She is so good that I thought she was the author. I will look for other books read by her.
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- Title
- 05-03-17
Encyclopedic and boring
Shocked by all the good reviews. Very dry, encyclopedic, and boring. All the facts, but no heart. I believe the author is a newspaper journalist, and that really comes through in the writing. It's just a bunch of facts and dates with very little insight or explanation of anything. The author goes through literally dozens and dozens of financial concepts without really ever explaining any of them, or enlightening us about them in any way. It's almost like reading a dictionary entry. And she doesn't find any emotional through line. I hate to be critical because hey, she's written more than me! But seriously I found this tedious. She managed to take a salacious scandal and turn it into a book report.
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- Chris
- 02-24-17
A must for the masses
I almost wish this book had a more commercially-appealing name so that more people could find it. After years of reading and listening to financial stories, I finally stumbled upon this one and I am ever so glad I did.
It covers the Bernie Madoff story in incredible detail and lays it out in a form that's reminiscent of that of Michael Lewis: clear, understandable, for everyone.
The performance was very good and the narrator changed inflection when necessary to make conversational parts of the story clear.
Very good listen overall.
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- M.L
- 04-15-17
Snooze
What did you like best about The Wizard of Lies? What did you like least?
A lot of good information but presented in a very dry and boring manner. Talks about what when and where of the crime but, gave very little insight into the man behind it. Narrator also put me to sleep.
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- Philo
- 08-27-12
A thorough, effective telling of the tale
As another reviewer indicated, there is a whole story in the bankruptcy case, including the battle between factions, some well-moneyed and -lawyered, over the funds in (or possibly to be clawed back into) the bankruptcy estate. I came away with a new admiration for the bankruptcy trustee and his team, for their standing up to the pressure brought to bear in the courts and media, and doing (what they saw as) the right thing.
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