Trust: A Novel

by Charles Epping

Hitler and the Third Reich's sweep across the European continent drove thousands of Jewish families to place their assets under the name of trusted Swiss lawyers and fiduciary agents on the eve of World War II. While many families claimed lost funds at the end of the war, many unclaimed accounts remain secreted away in Swiss vaults.

Alex Payton is a computer programmer hired to deactivate bugs in the Helvetia Bank of Zurich's database. In the process, she discovers a secret bank account wrought with a mysterious and dangerous history. With each clue Alex unearths, she finds herself deeper within a myriad of deceit, lies, and murder.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2006

Reviews

[Margo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story of a super secret Jewish bank account in Switzerland formed to protect assets during Nazi regime. Corruption in use of same account for money laundering all the way to Brazil and back. The explanation of how it was done left me with a headache.
Story of Alex - a young innocent woman who "stumbles" on one of those accounts and gets involved in bring it to light. Most characters are unbelievable including Alex, her associates and lover.
Convoluted, too much coincidence, overly dramatic. Sex scene and romance where a formula "must have" which added nothing to plot.
Ending was downright idiotic - truly a "a ends well", type ending.
Read for a book club but flipped through most of it to get the highlights and see if the author managed to write anything good. The only interesting thing is the existence of these bank accounts which do exist. All the existence of laws made to keep accounts secret and then used to protect the corrupt users with the statements like "nothing we can do, the law requires xyz".

[Maria Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story about an account kept hidden from access except by the person in charge of the trust account their family had been holding for any descendant of the original funds put into the account. The trust funds had been invested and accruing interest for many decades which raised the value of the funds quite drastically. That wasn't the issue because the caretaker family always knew that they would be turning over the funds to whoever was the account holder's descendants once they were found. The real problem was that someone else was using the account as a holding place for transferring funds from illegal sources as a means to "clean" the funds. The whole story starts with a data entry person Audrey discovering an account number while digitalizing the Swiss bank accounts that was unusual which made her question if the account number was numerically correct. It was the correct account number but the account was such an old active account that it predated the computer age and was still an active account from the pre-WWII era, hence the odd numbers. Her boss was involved, because of the kickback payment he received, in allowing the account to be used in this transfer to "cleanse" the funds. Bad enough that this was occurring, but people were dying/ being murdered to keep them from investigating and it all stems from stolen treasure sent to South America by escaping Nazis and retribution to the families of the Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust. This account belongs to a rich Jewish Fanliy group who deposited all their wealth into those trust accounts which also contained a vault of family treasures. The daughter was found in NYC, but she died she left a legal document that made this person, the data recorder computer person, her estate account holder access and disperse the funds, which was done after exposing the one who had been misusing the account number.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Epping makes the world of banking interesting in his book, TRUST. Zurich is the setting for the start of a career for Alex, a low level computer consultant, assigned to a huge Swiss bank. As she does her job she discovers a numeral irregularity which leads to meeting people and going places she never expected, a thrilling investigation.

[Yuri Lytovchenko · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of those very rare books which I just can't read up to the end. Forced myself to about 1/3 of the book, and then threw it away. This one is too bad even for a harlequin novel or a book club.

[Hidayah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Harga Sebuah Kepercayaan”, pembaca dibawa ke masa pemerintahan Adolf Hitler, Nazi Jerman kepemimpinan dictator, konspirasi politik, kisah Holocaust,Negara Genosida, pelarian penduduk Yahudi dari Kamp Konsentrasi Nazi, dan penyimpanan harta yang dilakukan penduduk untuk menghindari invansi oleh pihak Nazi maupun Soviet.., maka hanya ada satu Negara yaitu Swiss sebuah Negara netral kala Perang Dunia II meledak 1938 - 1945….jadi banyak harta perwalian yang tertidur di BANK sampai berpuluh tahun setelah PD II.

Charles Epping mengajak pembaca berselancar untuk mengetahui tindak pidana tersembunyi yang dilakukan oleh orang yang berharta, yaitu pencucian uang, korup yang berkelas, tanpa ada yang terusik akan pergerakannya didalamnya, legalisasi uang menghalalkan secara sepihak, ya pengetahuan baru untuk masalah perbankan ,,,terima kasih…,

Berawal dari Zurich, dengan nama Aladar Kohen seorang Yahudi yang mewarisi harta Blauer, dari Budhapest ia pergi ke Swiss untuk mengamankan hartanya, membuat perjanjian dengan Rudolf Tobler membuka rekening perwalian .., bermula dari kemunculan kode unix yang ditemukan oleh Alex , perempuan konsultan Bank HBZ Swiss yang tidak sengaja menyeretnya pada penemuan harta karun pada isi rekening keluarga yang sudah mati dalam Perang Dunia II

Satu pelajaran dalam buku ini, ketika Alex menaruh kepercayaannya pada satu tindakan, ternyata satu kepercaaan itu menarik kepercayaan-kepercayaan yang lain, menuntutnya untuk melakukan lebih dalam lagi terjun dalam permainan…

ketika kamu percaya maka saat itu juga koin yang kamu masukan itu memutar permainan didalamnya, mau tidak mau kamu harus ikut bermain sampai selesai kan,… petualangan yang menarik bagi Alex…, jangan pernah mengingat hasilnya tapi nikmati prosesnya…ya buku ini menyampaikan pelajaran yang berharga..,
penggunaan alur yang ringan membuka benang merah di akhir bagian..,ya itu memang khas dari buku luar negeri… pengalaman yang indah ketika bisa menemukan buku ini…, ^_^

[Alvi Harahap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short Summary:
At first hand, the premise for Charles Epping's novel "Trust" would not sound terribly interesting. In 1938, a year before the outbreak of World War II, the manager for a wealthy German Jewish family sets up an account at a Swiss bank under an assumed name (a so-called Treuhand account) so that if the Nazis invade Switzerland, they would not be able to confiscate the assets of Jewish account holders. Both the family patriarch and the manager perish during the war and by the dawn of the 21st Century, the account has grown to over $[...] Million in value and the heirs to the fortune have never been told of the account's existence.
Computer analyst at a Swiss Bank jets around to exotic locales trying to find the rightful heirs to a multi-million dollar swiss trust account that was stashed away there during WWII by a Hungarian Jew. Bad guys want to stop her.

The authors knowledge of the Swiss banking system was remarkable. I would love to learn more, tau aja bisa membantu untuk menjelaskan tentang rumor keberadaan Indonesian Heritage yang tersimpan di bank Swiss:)

[Farisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kayak sinopsis di bukunya, baca buku ini bikin orang ngerti kenapa banyak rekening lari ke Swiss...

Memang agak ribet ngerunut kronologis transaksinya, tapi saya lebih memilih baca buku ini dibanding buku International Finance yang diwajibkan di kelas perkuliahan saya.

Cerita romance-nya kurang sreg, tapi intrik keuangannya keren banget. Saya jadi paham mengenai money laundry, isu yang dulu lumayan hangat di koran-koran. Recommended.

[Wolfgang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little diversion. Fun read of completely preposterous plot that leads from WWII trustee account to Hungary, Brazil, US is chase of money laundering conspiracy. Plot line touches the boundary of the unbearably unbelievable a few times but doesn't completely crash and suspense is held throughout. Nice holiday read

[Ratih Puspo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boleh juga nih buku, meramu kisah tentang kerahasiaan bank2 di Swiss dengan rekening tidur yang konon katanya ribuan jumlahnya milik orang2 Yahudi korban holocaust.
jadi tau, kenapa kok banyak orang kaya (termasuk di sini) yang pada punya rekening di Swiss. hmm..pencucian uang jadi legal deh :(

[Yosse · Rating 2 out of 5]

We’ll get clearer picture about the confidentiality of Swiss Banks by reading this novel. The story is quite good/average and not really intense…..beside that’s not the point.

[Nataly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Hard to let go this book as soon as you start reading.
Can't wait to read his new book coming.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting...mostly because part of the book takes place in Hungary before, during and after WWII. Even though the dialogue was extremely unbelievable at times, I found it to be a page turner.

[Faris Al-Fadhat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cukup menarik!

[Elise Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Painless way to learn about Swiss banking as it was practiced in the mid-20th century.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wooww! a little bit too complicated for someone who doesn't live in banking!

[Angelic Zaizai · Rating 4 out of 5]

seru..
ada cerita tentang perbankan swiss
bisa tau seluk beluk pencucian uang segala

[Kleiton Nascimento · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking til the very last page.
Hard not to fall in love by the brave and smart Alex.
A very good and dynamic novel.

[Rainbow Hearttaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

eropa banget gayanya...