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Full Service Bank
A Full Service Bank recounts the biggest bank fraud in history, detailing BCCI's rise and fall, as well as the personalities involved.
Two veteran journalists go behind the scenes to reveal the intrigues and machinations that led to the biggest bank fraud in history, detailing BCCI's enterprise that stole billions around the world.
Two veteran journalists go behind the scenes to reveal the intrigues and machinations that led to the biggest bank fraud in history, detailing BCCI's enterprise that stole billions around the world.
400 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1992
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July 19, 2007
If you know me, you know I have a deep and abiding love for books on business scandals. This shit fascinates me – the complexity of some of the fraud, the stupidity and greed of many of the people involved. I really can’t get enough of it.
Anyway, BCCI is one of the biggest banking scandals in the history. For a taste of the scope of the thing, it involved Clark Clifford, one of the great Washington fixers of all time, plus Abu Nidal, and Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, the guy who brought you the UAE and a couple of billions dollars in lost money. There are law firms and accountants still working to retrieve some of this money today, more than ten years after the bank collapsed.
Most business and banking scandals are really just complicated variants of simple scheme or mistake. LTCM borrowed more than they could afford. ADM was involved in price fixing, and BCCI was basically a pyramid scheme.*/** Admittedly a huge and complex pyramid scheme, but a pyramid scheme all the same. I am constantly amazed that people think they can get away with this like this, but I guess one should never underestimate the greed and stupidity of the average person.
Tracking who did what to whom when is a complicated job in this scandal, and Adam and Frantz do a good job of keeping it all clear. This book doesn’t have the great writing of an Eichenwald book, but it does a keep all the facts straight. It isn’t for the novice business scandal reader, but the connoisseur will enjoy its international complexity and the taking down of a bunch of really important people.
* A pyramid scheme is where money from new suckers goes to pay the older suckers while the people who set up the scheme get mad rich.
*Enron is the exception here. You could say Enron was the result of shady accounting but that is really oversimplifying Enron’s use of a pretty fucking insane set accounting tools and debt restructuring instruments.
Anyway, BCCI is one of the biggest banking scandals in the history. For a taste of the scope of the thing, it involved Clark Clifford, one of the great Washington fixers of all time, plus Abu Nidal, and Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, the guy who brought you the UAE and a couple of billions dollars in lost money. There are law firms and accountants still working to retrieve some of this money today, more than ten years after the bank collapsed.
Most business and banking scandals are really just complicated variants of simple scheme or mistake. LTCM borrowed more than they could afford. ADM was involved in price fixing, and BCCI was basically a pyramid scheme.*/** Admittedly a huge and complex pyramid scheme, but a pyramid scheme all the same. I am constantly amazed that people think they can get away with this like this, but I guess one should never underestimate the greed and stupidity of the average person.
Tracking who did what to whom when is a complicated job in this scandal, and Adam and Frantz do a good job of keeping it all clear. This book doesn’t have the great writing of an Eichenwald book, but it does a keep all the facts straight. It isn’t for the novice business scandal reader, but the connoisseur will enjoy its international complexity and the taking down of a bunch of really important people.
* A pyramid scheme is where money from new suckers goes to pay the older suckers while the people who set up the scheme get mad rich.
*Enron is the exception here. You could say Enron was the result of shady accounting but that is really oversimplifying Enron’s use of a pretty fucking insane set accounting tools and debt restructuring instruments.
Displaying 1 of 1 review