Wonder Boy: Barry Minkow--The Kid Who Swindled Wall Street

by Daniel Akst

Recounts the rise of a teenaged rug cleaner to fame and fortune on Wall Street through phony companies, fradulent loans, and drug money laundering

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

A native New Yorker, Daniel Akst is a well-known journalist who has worked at the LA Times and Wall Street Journal and now writes a monthly column in the Sunday New York Times. He also writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal culture pages, and has appeared in many other publications, including American Heritage, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, Civilization, Technology Review, the Washington Monthly, and on both public radio and television. His first book, Wonder Boy (Scribners), chronicled the eye-popping ZZZZ Best fraud perpetrated by teenage entrepreneur Barry Minkow, and was named one of the 10 best of 1990 by Business Week. He is also the author of The Webster Chronicle published by BlueHen in October 2001.

Akst is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania who spent 13 years in Los Angeles before moving to the Hudson Valley, where he lives with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Suzette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story of a psychopath who charmed them all. I probably found it more interesting because I lived in L.A. during those years when you would see him everywhere.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

People won't see that your business is fiction
If you present yourself with conviction.

[Aharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

When first looking at this I opened up randomly to p. 187 and my eyes fell on the sentence: “Levy tried to contain his indignation.” That sort of sums it up. The mechanics of epic fraud are very interesting, but the other half of the book—“color,” “human interest,” etc.—is dull and a little silly. Just once I’d like to read a business book where nobody strides into a room as if he owns it, no neighborhood-history nutshells are offered to explain the characters of people who live in them, and there’s no description of who would play whom in the movie version.

[Henry Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

So my tax attorney recommended this book to me; hahaha don't know if i shouldve used him after reading this book... Crazy story about a kid who swindled the stockmarket and everyone following him. He didn't have an agenda, just a desire, knack for people and a crazy sequence of events. Great book!

[Sara Laor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Funny that this book is described as something that could only happen in "Reagan's America." Amazing Ponzi schemes have continued to take place well into the 21st century despite regulation, digitization and institutional complexity. The reasons are human weakness and the amazing inventiveness of the masterminds. This topic is eternal.