Had it not been for Bernie Madoff, Marc Dreier would likely have been the most notorious fraudster of recent memory. The press coverage was stolen away from Mr. Dreier’s $3/4 billion scam by the billions Madoff stole. But Dreier’s theft was much more brazen and a lot crazier. Over the weekend, between shuttling the kids … Read more »
Category: Book reviews
Discovering Empty Mansions
If you’ve ever been house hunting, you’ve likely spent some time looking at houses way out of your price range. Bill Dedman did the same thing. He discovered Le Beau Chateau, a $24 million mansion containing almost 15,000 square feet on 52 acres. The property taxes alone were $161,000 per year. But what really caught … Read more »
Finding the Signal Though the Noise
Nate Silver came into fame for his forecast of the presidential election in 2012. That matched his success in 2008 for also getting the presidential election correct. His book, The Signal and the Noise, is built upon that success. We learn that Silver is not a political pundit, but a numbers geek. He started with … Read more »
The Fall of Sam Israel
Sam Israel is a scumbag. He is a liar and a cheat. He admits so in Octopus by Guy Lawson. Israel was the nefarious trader behind the Bayou Funds, one of biggest hedge fund ponzi schemes, at least until Bernie Madoff finally fell to Earth. Lawson met with Israel while Israel was in prison. He … Read more »
Action in Congress
Robert Kaiser was granted rare access to the action behind the scenes of the creation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Act of Congress is an enjoyable study of the enactment of that law, used as tool to explore how Congress works, and largely how it it doesn’t work. Kaiser was already an … Read more »
A Manual of Style for Compliance
I’ve seen some poorly drafted compliance policies. The source of the problem is usually that they were written by lawyers, for lawyers. That is good when it comes to defending your firm against a lawsuit. But it’s a bad thing if the policy does not clearly tell the employees what they can do and what … Read more »
A Look Inside a Money Laundering Investigation
In The Infiltrator, Robert Mazur provides an encyclopedic account of his undercover work. Mazur spent years undercover infiltrating the criminal hierarchy of Colombia’s drug cartel, and the dirty bankers and businessmen willing to launder drug cash. His work led to the arrest of dozens of drug traffickers and money launders. It also led to the … Read more »
Antifragile – Things That Gain from Disorder
Taleb is back, and he is even more brash and brilliant. Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s fame grew from his second book, The Black Swan, being timely released just before the 2008 financial crisis. Antifragile continues his narrative on probability and risk. The Black Swan took on the theory that the highly improbable was a lot more … Read more »
A History and Analysis of Con Artists and Victims: The Ponzi Scheme Puzzle
Professor Tamar Frankel of Boston University School of Law tackles investment fraudsters and their victims in her book, The Ponzi Scheme Puzzle. As a scholar of investment fraud, Frankel has studied cases for years to find common themes and patterns. The books offers descriptions of the offers and red flags the ways in which fraudsters … Read more »
What I Read in 2012
The Goal One of my recurring annual goals is to finish reading at least 26 books for the year. In 2012, I managed to finish 36. Although, 6 of those were lighter reads. So maybe I should discount those and bring it down to 30. In any event, I exceeded my goal. The full list … Read more »