Kleptopia

Description

₹1.87
Price: [price_with_discount]
(as of [price_update_date] – Details)

[ad_1]

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER‘If you think the UK isn’t corrupt, you haven’t looked hard enough … This terrifying book follows a global current of dirty money, and the murders and kidnappings required to sustain it’ GEORGE MONBIOT, GUARDIANAN ECONOMIST AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

‘When you pick this book up, you won’t be able to put it down’ MISHA GLENNY, author of MCMAFIA

‘Gripping, disturbing and deeply reported’ BEN RHODES, bestselling author of THE WORLD AS IT IS

In this real-life thriller packed with jaw-dropping revelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis reveals a terrifying global web of kleptocracy and corruption.

Kleptopia follows the dirty money that is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, enriching oligarchs and poisoning democracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, London to the Trump White House, it shows how the thieves are uniting – and the terrible human cost.

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 – the world’s piggy bank for blood money.

Riveting, horrifying and written like fiction, this book shows that while we are looking the other way, all that we hold most dear is being stolen.

Tom Burgis’ book ‘KLEPTOPIA’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 14-03-2022.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Collins (8 July 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008308381
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008308384
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 322 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 3.05 x 19.8 cm
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India
Net Quantity ‏ : ‎ 320.00 Grams

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Simply awesome.
Review: Having read his earlier book on Africa, I picked up this book and was expecting it to be a good one. I was not disappointed. The book reads like a thriller, except that everything is real life. It gives you an inside look at how criminals and corrupt leaders and businessmen make and launder money. From the privatized mines and factories of the former soviet union to rigged elections in Africa to a shady corporation listed in London, the book will show how all this is linked. A must read.

Reviewer: Anirudh
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great book.
Review: Jusy started reading the book. The sentence structure is a bit 😳 for my taste. The simple thing is told in a very loopy and fancy way. The author has a flair for words and it shows. The content reads like a real novel and it is scary to think how the rich and the powerful live a parallel and powerfully endowed life among us mortals without any accountability. Still reading it…

Reviewer: Kunal Verma
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This book changed my view of the world
Review: I have been naive all my life. And chances are so have you. The way the world functions is very different from the way I have always imagined it has functioned. The way power is built and hapless citizens of nations, living their lives with blinders on is a shock to the system, the moment one learns about it. Putin, Trump, Tony Blair, Shell, HSBC, China all the biggest names, institutions and countries in the world are ripped open in this expose. Everyone human needs to read this book.

Reviewer: RAJA MUKHERJEA
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Financial crime – unbelievable level!
Review: Jaw dropping book in financial crime … interesting characters from Boris Johnson , Putin , Trump and many others ! You will know that there is a different world which is laundering billions under different garbs.Recommended… I completed the book in three days ..

Reviewer: Sanjog Wadhwani
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not very well structured
Review: My humble view i maybe wrongI felt book was not well structuredI learned many new things but i could not develop a flow because the stories were getting interchanged after every chapterIt should have been AAABBBCCC but it was ABCABCABC hence i could not develop speed and was forgetting thingsDetails were nice but could have been written in a better way

Reviewer: Rajiv Chopra
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fascinating
Review: Every man lives his real, most interesting life under cover of secrecy Anton Chekhov, The Lady with The DogAn alternative way of depicting this book is that ruthless thieves rule us. I am confident I am correct in stating that kleptocratic states are becoming increasingly common.I gained two extra terms. The first is ‘kleptocracy’. In a kleptocratic state, the ruler uses political authority to peddle the country’s resources for personal profit.The second, is ‘kakistocracy’. I learned this word while researching kleptocracy. This a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens. If you throw in the word autocracy, you will have a state ruled by one person who concentrates all power in himself/herself.The secret of a great fortune with no apparent cause is a crime that has been forgotten because it was done properly Honore de Balzac, Old GoriotTom Burgis has composed a work about kleptocracies. He has not mentioned kakistocracies, which is a pity. If you analyse this word seriously, you recognize that it is (at one level) related to kleptocratic states. I would state that kleptocracies, kakistocracies and autocracies are linked.The writing is lively. There were occasions I had to warn myself that this is not a crime tale. Tom Burgis has depicted two kleptocratic situations—Africa and Kazakhstan/Ukraine.Evidently, kleptocratic states are not new. In my considered view, we can characterize the escapades of people like Cecil Rhodes and King Leopold in the 19th century as kleptocratic behavior.What is distinct between those times and our current days? Cecil Rhodes and King Leopold were not populists. Many of today’s corrupt leaders are populists. Populism usually rises when resentment and discontent sweep through society. There are many reasons for this, and this is not the place to plunge into this problem. However, Germany after World War I was ready for populism, as was India in 2012-2014. These are conditions in which a populist is most comfortable. He can manipulate the situation, present himself as a guardian angel, and then expels the established order. Yet, a populist creates an order that is worse than the one he supplanted.Political power becomes concentrated in the grip of a few, and kleptocracy rules. A kleptocrat is ruthless. Tom Burgis has painted a highly authentic picture of this ruthlessness in the two cases that he presented in his book.They did not have to knock too hard.’ The London bankers’ and lawyers’ private pursuits matched those of the oligarchs and their retinues. ‘The finest of the finest prostitutes. Any drug you want. Different batches of girls. Limitless money. Limitless.’ from Kleptopia. Tom BurgisThere is another contrast between the 19th century and our years. This is the international scale of the operation. Social media, and the internet has made both—propaganda and cash transfer—much simpler. I don’t know if international banks took a piece of the action in the 19th century, but they do now. The book is a dismal tale of corruption, avarice, cynicism and outright hypocrisy.Nigel of Basingstoke tried to put himself inside a BSI client’s mind. ‘Why would I come to London to set up anaccount in Switzerland in the name of a Cayman Islands entity with directors in Panama? Now, it makesabsolutely no sense unless there is something quite underhand going on.’ from Kleptopia. Tom BurgisTom Burgis presents us with two narratives. One is that of Nigel Wilkins of Basingstoke who tried, through his career, to piece together evidence against the corruption.The other is the account of fraud in Ukraine/Kazakhstan and Africa. This is a tale of greed, cruelty and dictatorial power. The kleptocrats think nothing of torturing protestors and labelling them as anti-national. Neither do they think twice about celebrating ostentatiously while their citizens are infected with Ebola and die gruesome deaths.In his last chapter, Tom gives us with a list of countries controlled by kleptocrats. The USA should thank itself that Donald Trump has been voted out of power. If not, it would have gone the way of the other countries. I am startled that he did not mention India. However, the situation in India may be distinctive in its own manner.Nigel Wilkins died without being able to pursue justice to its bitter end.Tom has weaved a compelling narrative of selfishness, corruption and exploitation of powerThere is one deficiency in the book. The analysis is not deep enough. Earlier in this review, I mentioned kakistocracies and autocracies because I believe they are related.Does democracy exist, except in name? Tom Burgis could have thrown some wisdom into these topics and the interdependences between them.Putting this quibble aside, it is an exceptional book. We ought to be frightened. Most of us lead our lives in complacent bubbles of blissful ignorance.Thieves rule us, and we vote them into power again and again.This is an exceptional book—about racketeers and dupes.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Powerful book
Review: This is a very important book about how corrupt dictators, politicians, bankers, lawyers spies and gangsters are looting the world’s wealth.

Reviewer: vikram
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Requires more than one brain to grasp the content
Review: Poorly written, confusing with tons of pseudo names. Each time we have to check the pseudo name with original character to get an idea. Could have explained to audience in an understandable manner.

Reviewer: AN
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Informational and quite interesting

Reviewer: Pilton
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: An extensively researched and comprehensive analysis tracking the movement of ‘dirty money’ around the globe.The narrative can be a little dry. The “cast list” and their interaction can be confusing. To be fair, at times I was unable to recall how some of the characters related to others and which money source related to who. This was resolved by cross referencing with earlier chapters but I had to work at it.So, a dry and sometimes confusing narrative which seemed to involve chasing money and ‘bad actors’ around the globe. As I reached the last third of the book, I wondered whether the author would draw all this together or simply leave me fascinated, a little depressed, but none the wiser about how this relates to the ‘man on the Clapham Omnibus’.Had I wondered why I put myself through all this hard work, all would become clear in the last handful of chapters.

Reviewer: Harry
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: An interesting read.

Reviewer: Djordje Matic
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Impecably researched and presented, Kleptopia gives us a small insight into the corrupted society that we all live in.

Reviewer: Vlad Thelad
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I wish this was a work of fiction. Alas, it is not. This is brilliant way to expose what so many know exists, but can hardly grasp given the combination of secrecy, multiplicity of sources, profusion of characters involved, and the enormity of the dirty money figures . It is so unfathomable that it would be so easy to disregard as yet another conspiracy theory. What Burgis does is write it like a novel, with a relatable cast which we follow through their cycle of dirty money turning into power, the plunder of public goods, the monetization of power, the proceeds being laundered and more power acquired, with the trail of destruction and pain equally highlighted through the plight of individuals. Thoroughly researched, impeccably written, and so timely to understand how illusory it is to expect that power thus gained would be easily relinquished.

4.5

[ad_2]