The Laundromat (previously published as SECRECY WORLD)
Inside the Panama Papers, Illicit Money Networks, and the Global Elite
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Secrecy World is the inspiration for the Major Motion Picture The Laundromat from Director Steven Soderbergh, Starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas
A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes us inside the world revealed by the Panama Papers, a landscape of illicit money, political corruption, and fraud on a global scale.
A hidden circulatory system flows beneath the surface of global finance, carrying trillions of dollars from drug trafficking, tax evasion, bribery, and other illegal enterprises. This network masks the identities of the individuals who benefit from these activities, aided by bankers, lawyers, and auditors who get paid to look the other way.
In Secrecy World, the Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter Jake Bernstein explores this shadow economy and how it evolved, drawing on millions of leaked documents from the files of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca—a trove now known as the Panama Papers—as well as other journalistic and government investigations. Bernstein shows how shell companies operate, how they allow the superwealthy and celebrities to escape taxes, and how they provide cover for illicit activities on a massive scale by crime bosses and corrupt politicians across the globe.
Bernstein traveled to the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and within the United States to uncover how these strands fit together—who is involved, how they operate, and the real-world impact. He recounts how Mossack Fonseca was exposed and what lies ahead for the corporations, banks, law firms, individuals, and governments that are implicated.
Secrecy World offers a disturbing and sobering view of how the world really works and raises critical questions about financial and legal institutions we may once have trusted.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
So what do drug dealers, organized-crime bosses, bribe-taking politicians, and tax cheats actually do with all their dirty money? Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Jake Bernstein found out, using thousands of files leaked from a shady Panamanian law firm to uncover a secret world of global finance. He exposes a massive international network of shell companies and offshore banks that aided the wealthy and corrupt for decades. With marvelous precision, Bernstein explains how he and a team of investigative journalists from around the world took on the Herculean task of exposing the subterfuge. Trust us, you don’t need to know anything about banking or finance to find The Laundromat fascinating! It’s a thrilling, unsettling, and informative read about an illicit network that’s been diminished but still exists.