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.
Author(s): Tom Burgis
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 340
Tags: Economics; Finance; Bankers; Banking; Money Laundering; kleptocracy; Capitalism; Political power; Oligarchs; corruption; Financial control; Greed; Ukraine; trafficking; bribery; fraud; fake news; Felix Sater
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
A Note on Truth
Cast of Characters
Epigraph
Part I: Crisis
1: The Thief – Kensington, January 2008
2: A Feast – Whitehall, February 2008
3: Tunnels – Cheapside, February 2008
4: The Dual State – Moscow, February 2008
5: Silhouette – Cheapside, July 2008
6: Mr Billy – Harare, September 2008
7: Shutdown – Cheapside, September 2008
8: The Fallen Oligarch – Astana, January 2009
9: Top Secret – London, April 2009
10: Paying Your Dues – Pretoria, September 2009
11: The Informant – Brooklyn, October 2009
12: The Real – London, May 2010
Part II: Chrysalis
13: Beginnings – London, December 2010
14: Big Yellow – Finchley, February 2011
15: Watchdogs – London, March 2011
16: The Savarona – London, May 2011
17: Off the Books – Rudny, May 2011
18: God’s Kingdom – St Paul’s, October 2011
19: Fear – Zhanaozen, December 2011
20: Stability – Cambridge, July 2012
21: Too Big to Jail – London, September 2012
22: Sasha and Seva – St James’s, March 2013
23: The Loving Cup – Canary Wharf, February 2013
24: The Presumption of Regularity – Rome, May 2013
25: A Legit Shithole – Cincinnati, August 2013
26: Risk Appetite – Canary Wharf, August 2013
27: Doubles – Old Billingsgate, February 2014
28: The System – Canary Wharf, June 2014
Part III: Metamorphosis
29: Conquest – Eastern Ukraine, August 2014
30: Privacy – Kensington, September 2014
31: The Bridge – Moscow, February 2015
32: His Footprints Are Not Found – Colchester, September 2015
33: Winners – Manhattan, November 2016
34: Saint or Sinner – Paris, December 2016
35: The Future – Colchester, December 2016
36: The Man With No Past – Washington, January 2017
37: It’s Over – Kensington, June 2017
38: The Story You Choose to Tell – Montreal, August 2017
39: Alternative Facts – London, March 2019
40: Quid Pro Quo – Washington, July 2019
41: Normal Business – Worldwide, 2020
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
About the Author
Also by Tom Burgis
Copyright
About the Publisher
