Kleptopia

A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year • An Economist Book of the YearNow With a New Afterword“A must-read for anyone wanting to better understand whathas already happened here in America and what lies ahead if Trump is reelectedin November…. A magisterial account of the money and violence behind theworld’s most powerful dictatorships.” –Washington PostIn 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. Mastersof secrecy. Until now we have detected their presence only by what they leavebehind. A body in a burned-out Audi. Workers riddled with bullets in the KazakhDesert. A rigged election in Zimbabwe. A British banker silenced and humiliatedfor trying to expose the truth about the City of London.They have amassed more money than most countries. But whatthey are really stealing is power.In this real-life thriller packed with jaw-droppingrevelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis weaves togetherfour stories that reveal a terrifying global web of corruption: thetroublemaker from Basingstoke who stumbles on the secrets of a Swiss bank, theex-Soviet billionaire constructing a private empire, the righteous Canadianlawyer 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 thatis flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, and poisoningdemocracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, Paris to the WhiteHouse, the trail shows something even more sinister: the thieves are uniting.And the human cost will be great.