Kleptopia

How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World

By: Tom Burgis

Narrated by: Tom Burgis

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

“A must-read for anyone wanting to better understand what has already happened here in America and what lies ahead if Trump is reelected in November…. A magisterial account of the money and violence behind the world’s most powerful dictatorships.” –Washington Post

In this shocking, meticulously reported work of narrative nonfiction, an award-winning investigative journalist exposes “capitalism’s monster”—global kleptocracy—and reveals how it is corrupting the world around us.

They are everywhere, the thieves and their people. Masters of secrecy. Until now we have detected their presence only by what they leave behind. A body in a burned-out Audi. Workers riddled with bullets in the Kazakh Desert. A rigged election in Zimbabwe. A British banker silenced and humiliated for trying to expose the truth about the City of London.

They have amassed more money than most countries. But what they are really stealing is power.

In this real-life thriller packed with jaw-dropping revelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis weaves together four stories that reveal a terrifying global web of corruption: the troublemaker from Basingstoke who stumbles on the secrets of a Swiss bank, the ex-Soviet billionaire constructing a private empire, the righteous Canadian lawyer with a mysterious client, and the Brooklyn crook protected by the CIA.

Glimpses of this shadowy world have emerged over the years. In Kleptopia, Burgis connects the dots. He follows the dirty money that is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, and poisoning democracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, Paris to the White House, the trail shows something even more sinister: the thieves are uniting. And the human cost will be great.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

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

©2020 Tom Burgis (P)2020 HarperAudio

Lazy Journalism in long narrative form

Got this because of my work in the field. There are a few nuggets occasionally but repeatedly the author engages in analytical leaps attempting to tie disparate groups and circumstances to a global cabal - and even DJT for good measure. (Are we really rehashing Fusion GPS and the Steele Dossier?)

The author applies a Kevin Bacon game methodology to his reporting without describing the underlying schemes themselves which is the most important part of financial crime but takes effort to describe.

Perhaps it would be better in written form. That said, recommend pass.

Hard to hear, poor narrator. But valuable

The narrator said in the introduction that there was a pdf file with the audiobooks with additional information. I cannot find any such file, but maybe if there is one it would make it possible to make up for the very hard-to-understand narrator.

A person who is fluent in the language of international money movement and political intreague could possibly understand the book, but maybe would not need it. I am trying to remember all the background information and history, while learning about a world I only have begun to realize existed.

It is probably vital to take the effort to digest this information, but that pdf seems essential.

Narrator was almost impossible to understand.

The subject matter seemed very interesting, but I could only understand three quarters of what the narrator said. His delivery was rapid and jerky and fluctuated from normal volume to nearly inaudible. I'll return the book.

Brilliant

To Whom It May Concern,
This book is meticulously researched and concisely told. At the conclusion of the book it is so very sad that the contents are factual and needed to be exposed. The author makes a point in summation of how many people, of the myriad of countries who were looted by a handful of criminals, could have benefitted from wealth rightfully theirs, and potentially how much better our world could have been. The corruption reaches the highest levels, even our very own, and rots everything it touches. He is courageous for exposing this world wide travesty and I highly recommend it.
Regards,
Sam Thompson

An important, enjoyable read

This book presents a sobering and illuminating picture of the rising trend among the internationally wealthy to hide power away by turning it into laundered money, and then to reconstitute it into power when its origins have been scrubbed clean.

The author is a surprisingly effective reader, and the narrative style of the book -- telling this history as a story rather than an accounting of names and dates -- makes it very enjoyable to listen to.

Highly recommended for those who want perspective on recent events and their origins over the last forty years.

interesting but lacks structure

A collection of sometimes interesting, sometimes a bid tedious stories about oligarchs and kleptocarts. It doesn't feel like a cohesive story is told overall but rather a string of ancedotes, focused on Kazakhstan, that have no clear relation to one another. towards the end I found it tiring and repetitive.

eye opening, entertaining, and informative.

I would suggest that every person read this book and see how the world really operates

Must Read.

If you can’t make sense of the politics of our era, this book makes what is taking place crystal clear.

Very dense, yet so important and informative piece of work.

Very dense, yet so important and informative piece of work. It is worth reading to understand the background of the current situation in Russia, the role of different actors and countries, and the flow of dirty money.

Kleptopia

Good material, well read, well researched. Difficult at times to keep the timelines straight however.