The duo who broke the story of the Abraaj scandal have now entertainingly, edifyingly and thoroughly broken down the capitalistic/philanthropic mirage that was Arif Naqvi. This splendid cautionary tale lays bare the vulnerabilities of the world of high finance, where even the grandees of Davos were marks for the kid from Karachi - a man who could seemingly, simultaneously produce mega-returns for investors and lift up poor people in the Third World - until, as Clark and Louch compellingly recount, he disastrously could not * John Helyar, coauthor of Barbarians at the Gate *
An unbelievable true tale of greed, corruption and manipulation among the world's financial elite and how the World Bank, Bill Gates and the governments of the US, UK, France, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Kuwait fell victim to the world's largest private equity Ponzi scheme. * Harry Markopolos, the Bernie Madoff whistleblower *
Arif Naqvi separated billionaires and royalty from their wealth by appealing to their private conceit that they had made their billions doing God's work. The twists and turns of the increasingly desperate effort to raise funds to protect Arif's reputation and keep Abraaj afloat - the near misses and lucky saves - are spellbinding. You won't want to put the book down * Eileen Applebaum, coauthor of Private Equity at Work *
How do you dupe the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the Gates Foundation, and countless financial 'luminaries' from around the globe? Attach yourself to the latest piece of financial gibberish philanthrocapitalism hire a couple of McKinsey consultants and then get the Harvard Business School to write glowing reports about you. In this page turner, Clark and Louch serve up an emphatic indictment of the 'expert class' people who think agility with numbers is somehow equivalent to wisdom and morality * Duff McDonald, author of The Golden Passport *
The writing matches that of the best thrillers, with one huge extra bonus: you learn tons, even if you know this industry reasonably well. The rigour and colossal effort that went into this book transpires on each page. There is no dull moment. It is 300 pages of reading pleasure mixed with serious discomfort at what is being presented: the world of finance as it can be * Ludovic Phalippou, professor of Financial Economics at Said Business School, University of Oxford *
Simon Clark and Will Louch do us a service with their highly readable reminder of how greed and gullibility so often go together, and why we need good investigative journalism to keep reminding us that if the pitch (and the person doing the pitch) look just too good to be true there is probably something fishy going on behind the scenes * Professor Sir David Omand, former director of GCHQ and author of How Spies Think *
A rip-roaring account of one of the biggest frauds in corporate history. Through a pacy and deeply-researched narrative, Clark and Louch unpick how a private equity trailblazer convinced some of the world's richest and most sophisticated investors to part with their money - with devastating consequences. A must read for anyone who is sceptical about the claims made by investment companies about their ethical credentials and motives
* Owen Walker, award-winning FT journalist and author of Built on a Lie *
A riveting account of the intertwining of brilliance and greed... Should be a mandatory read at all schools of journalism and business schools. It's a rare tour de force from which both can learn * Business Standard, India *
A scorching epilogue... This is tough stuff and this is a tough book that should contribute to much greater scepticism about the bloated financial system * The Sunday Times *
Clark and Louch have done an outstanding job in untangling the knots that usually keep the secretive world of private equity out of reach for most people * Pakistan's Dawn *
Business books are usually boring, but this one is well paced and cleverly organised. It also draws some devastating conclusions about our over-financialized economies; in particular the authors target the $4 trillion private-equity industry, which, if anybody has the courage to notice, should hereafter be subject to rigorous reform. -- Brian Appleyard * The Sunday Times *
In a scorching epilogue the authors draw all the right conclusions . . . This is tough stuff and this is a tough book that should contribute to much greater scepticism about the bloated financial system. But it probably won't. Money talks, or rather as Bob Dylan sang, it swears. -- Kazim Alam * Dawn Newspaper, Pakistan *
