Kleptopia

A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year • An Economist Book of the Year

“A must-read for anyone wanting to better understand what
has already happened here in America and what lies ahead if Trump is reelected
in November…. A magisterial account of the money and violence behind the
world’s most powerful dictatorships.” –Washington Post
In 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. 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.