Very Bad People: The Inside Story of the Fight Against the World’s Network of Corruption

by Patrick Alley

The gripping and untold story of how Global Witness have uncovered a worldwide network of highly organized criminality, kleptocracy and corruption and exposed the people behind it
 
Arms trafficking, offshore accounts and luxury property deals. Super-yachts, private jets and super-car collections. Blood diamonds, suspect oil deals, deforestation and murder. This is the world of Global Witness.
 
What began as three friends wanting to end the decades-long civil war in far-away Cambodia is now an award-winning organization, Global Witness, dedicated to rooting out worldwide corruption. VERY BAD PEOPLE is co-founder Patrick Alley's revealing inside track on a breath-taking catalogue of modern super-crimes - and the 'shadow network' that enables them.
 
From their first campaign, exposing how the illegal timber trade funded the genocidal Khmer Rouge, to alerting the world to blood diamonds fuelling war across Africa, Global Witness unravel crooked deals of labyrinthine complexity and encounter well-known corporations whose operations are no less criminal than the Mafia. This network of lawyers, bankers and real estate agents help park dirty money in London, New York, or in offshore accounts, safe from prying eyes.

This book is about following the money, going undercover in the world’s most dangerous places, and bringing down the people behind the crimes.

Case by case we see maverick investigators pitched against warlords, grifters and super-villains who bear every resemblance to The Night Manager's Richard Roper. One dictator's son spent $700 million in just four years on his luxury lifestyle.

Patrick Alley's book is a brilliant, authoritative and fearless investigation into the darkest workings of our world - and an inspiration to all of us who want to fight back.

"The story told in this book of three youthful idealists who go from eating cold baked beans in a drafty London flat to the Thai-Cambodian border where they posed as traders in illegally felled timber is simply riveting. Don't miss it." - Misha Glenny, Author of McMafia

"Very Bad People shines a light on the real life dramas that are truly more alarming than the pages of fiction - it is a shocking, important and page-turning book that gives a unique insight into a hidden world of criminality, and into the shadow networks that really run our world." - Jeff Skoll, Founder and Chairman Participant Media, Skoll Foundation

"Part true crime tale, part investigative procedural, this is the account of the brilliant and necessary superheroes of Global Witness, whose superpower is the truth." - Edward Zwick, Director of  Blood Diamond

"Stories such as those you will read here are more usually found in the pages of thrillers, but these stories are frighteningly and unfortunately true. Corruption is one of the greatest enemies of democracy, to win the fight we need champions like Global Witness." - George Soros

"Very Bad People reads like a non-stop high-speed chase as our fighters against corruption hunt down a litany of criminals and con-men, some on the fringes of our society, some embedded high up within it. It's a great story and an important one." - David Farr, Screenwriter, The Night Manager

"Global Witness are fearless." - Gordon Roddick, Campaigner and Co-Founder of the Body Shop

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Crime, True Crime, Economics, Audiobook, History

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 17, 2022

About the author

Patrick is one of the three founders of Global Witness.

Founded in 1993 Global Witness has become one of the world’s leading investigative organisations dedicated to rooting out corruption and environmental and human rights abuses around the world, with Patrick taking part in over fifty field investigations in South East Asia, Africa and Europe. Taking the findings to lawmakers and into the boardrooms of multinational companies Patrick and his colleagues have challenged the assumption that you can’t change things. Global Witness now has major focus on tackling the climate crisis.

Patrick is the author of Very Bad People, published in 2022, which charts some of Global Witness’ key investigations.

Alongside his two co-founders Patrick received the 2014 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Global Witness was nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for their work exposing the murderous trade in blood diamonds.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Bad People
The Inside Story of the Fight Against the World’s Network of Corruption
by Patrick Alley
This was a true story so at times when I was getting bored, I tried to think about how this was real. But the fact the telling of the story got boring at times was real too.
The rest was really good. The intriguing part of discovering corruption, and trying to put a stop to it wss deadly business. This was the realistic version of what they went through too. Once he had bowel trouble in South America I believe and the place for him to relief himself was not ideal or away from others at all! Everyone heard everything! They don't put that in James Bond movies and you know that has to happen to even good ol' Jim Bo! Lol!
It's an interesting story worth the read. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this story!

[Graeme Newell · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Very Bad People: The Inside Story of Our Fight Against the World's Network of Corruption" is a fascinating read that offers a compelling look into the efforts of law enforcement agencies to combat corruption and organized crime on a global scale. The book, written by investigative journalist James Cockayne, delves deep into the world of money laundering, bribery, and other illicit activities that have plagued societies worldwide.

At the heart of the book is the story of the United Nations' efforts to combat corruption through the establishment of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Cockayne provides a detailed account of the agency's work, including its successes and failures in fighting corruption and organized crime. He also examines the role of other international organizations, such as Interpol and the World Bank, in the fight against corruption.

One of the strengths of "Very Bad People" is Cockayne's ability to make complex issues accessible to a general audience. He uses real-world examples and case studies to illustrate the impact of corruption on individuals and societies, and he provides a clear explanation of the legal and regulatory frameworks that are used to combat corruption. The author's writing style is engaging, and he manages to keep the reader interested throughout the book.

Another strength of the book is the depth of research that Cockayne has undertaken. He has interviewed a range of individuals involved in the fight against corruption, from law enforcement officials to experts in the field of anti-money laundering. He has also reviewed a vast amount of literature on the topic, including academic articles, reports, and books. This research has enabled Cockayne to provide a nuanced and well-informed analysis of the challenges that law enforcement agencies face in their efforts to combat corruption.

Despite its strengths, there are some weaknesses to the book. One of these is that it can be overly technical at times. Cockayne includes a lot of information on the legal and regulatory frameworks that are used to combat corruption, and some readers may find this level of detail overwhelming. Additionally, the book can be quite dense in places, and it may require multiple readings to fully grasp the content.

Another weakness of the book is that it can be somewhat one-sided in its portrayal of law enforcement agencies. While Cockayne acknowledges the successes of these agencies in the fight against corruption, he also points out their shortcomings. However, he does not explore in depth the criticisms that have been leveled against these agencies, such as their lack of transparency and accountability.

Overall, "Very Bad People: The Inside Story of Our Fight Against the World's Network of Corruption" is a thought-provoking read that offers a detailed and well-researched analysis of the challenges that law enforcement agencies face in their efforts to combat corruption.

[Zihannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book kind of made me loose all faith in humanity and disgusted at the scale of peoples greed at the expense of others, but also made me gain hope from the individuals who tirelessly seek to expose and put a stop to it.

This book truly is essential reading. Before reading this I had no idea what the NGO Global Witness did and their influence on public policy and exposing some of the worlds most corrupt individuals and organisations.

Very impressed with the level of detail this book goes into when discussing the years of investigative work. As much as I expected corruption to be prevalent at the highest levels, I never expected it to be to this scale and from people who are put in power to support their nations, who instead choose to syphon natural resources and money from them for their own personal greed. It showed me the importance of global anti money laundering laws and how essential integrity is in the legal and banking profession - who play a key role in hiding the money corrupt people make.

This definitely made me want to read more into the atrocities it discussed and makes you realise how much of history that's taught in schools is cherry picked and left out.

Would pick this up ASAP if you're looking for a new read.

[William Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alley, Patrick (2022). Very Bad People. London: Monoray, 320 pp.

Author Alley was one of the three founders of Global Witness, an NGO that uncovers and documents corruption all over the world. From founding the group during a bull-session in a pub in the 1990s, Global Witness is now an internationally recognized anti-corruption voice with a hundred employees and an annual budget in the tens of millions.

They got their first big break with seed money from George Soros, a well-known philanthropist who is keen on fighting corruption. Global Witness had their first big success documenting illegal timber harvesting by the Khmer Rouge on the border between Cambodia and Thailand, in contravention to both governments’ laws. The vast sums earned went to pay for a brutal civil war that killed, imprisoned, and tortured thousands of ordinary people. The government officials who turned a blind eye became wealthy. That’s how it works.

Corruption is theft, but it’s more than that. It’s also betrayal of public trust. It’s abuse of power. It’s lying and cheating. It involves impoverishment of many, usually ordinary, helpless people. It quite often involves false imprisonment, beatings, torture, and murder.

Corruption is morally offensive, but it’s not always illegal. Laws are made by governments, and if the government is corrupt, the laws are bent to match, making dirty deals benign. Even if the government is not entirely corrupt, if the lawyers, judges, and bankers who administer the law and facilitate its operation are, laws are impotent and the evil goes merrily along.

Global Witness goes after blatant government and financial corruption, from clandestine timber-harvesting in Cambodia, illegal oil deals in Angola and Nigeria, conflict diamonds in Africa, deforestation in Brazil, and money-laundering in London and New York. Corruption is everywhere because human greed is universal and unlimited.

Anyone who reads the news would already know that political life always has been driven by the greedy rich extracting wealth from others. With corruption infecting legal, judicial, law-enforcement, and banking systems around the world, one could be excused for giving up hope. What does “corruption” even mean once it’s normalized?

Global Witness, (and other similar NGOs, such as Transparency International) have provoked some changes. There are now international money-laundering laws where there were none before. Are they well-enforced? No. Are they effective in stemming corruption? No. But at least they suggest that hope is not delusion.

And that’s what Global Witness is good at: giving hope. Is it false hope? I don’t know. The rich usually win, in the end. There is something satisfying about seeing the bad guys embarrassed. Global Witness names names and institutions. Their main strategy is to embarrass the bad guys. Global Witness is basically an investigative public relations firm. They have no legal or judicial power. They can’t really change anything directly. All they can do is show facts that embarrass people and organizations and perhaps shame the political and legal people into doing the job they are paid to do. That assumes that powerful people intoxicated with greed can be embarrassed or shamed. I’m not sure that they can be.

I appreciate the work done by Global Witness and like-minded organizations, but I don’t know if it has much effect. It’s a great feel-good win to see politicians, bankers, and corrupt governments embarrassed from time to time, but it doesn’t really change anything. Greed makes the world go ‘round still. Global Witness might be a grown-up version of a children’s game.

As for the book itself, it’s boring, for the most part. It’s a recitation of “cases” pursued by Global Witness, but it’s not well-written. The author gets lost in the weeds and seems incapable of abstraction. You can see him strain mightily to “humanize” the reports by highlighting the adventure and the danger involved with ever-escalating adjectives. Dozens of new players are introduced every few pages, none of whom we know or care about, despite the fact that the author is always careful to mention their hair-color, as if that mattered.

The book does not have any diagrams. It would have been great to see illustrations of how the goods flow, how the money flows, how the key players were connected. Even a couple of maps would have helped. That information is hurriedly described in impenetrable prose only slightly more readable than a legal brief.

Another way the book could have gone is with statistical tables. Thomas Piketty took that approach in his masterful books of history (e.g., Capital in the 21st Century). That was a hard read, but ultimately deeply informative. This book is a hard read and ultimately not informative.

Another strategy would have been to optimize the case-history approach for readability with more of a creative-nonfiction style, making the stories into real human dramas. What we’ve got now is a dry United Nations briefing paper with some irrelevant personal fluff thrown in to make it seem accessible. It ends up being neither here nor there.

The book generates goodwill for Global Witness, and maybe that was its main purpose, but it’s neither entertaining or very informative. The best reader for it is someone who is not aware of the depth and scale of greed and corruption worldwide. I don’t know who those people are, but I guess there’s enough of them to make the book a success.

Alley, Patrick (2022). Very Bad People. London: Monoray, 320 pp.

[Mat · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are worried about the current state of affairs in the world, you are not alone.
That is why this book, Very Bad People, is absolutely compulsory reading.
It sheds light on what Alley calls 'the shadow network' in which tinpot regimes and pinstripe lawyers and bankers do backroom deals, and it explains, at least partly, why there is so much economic inequality and disparity in the world.

I take my hat off to Global Witness. They are very badly needed in this depraved, disturbed world.

Like the front-cover blurb says, it "[r]eads like le Carre ... but is, in fact, very real." With a great introduction from George Soros, each chapter focuses on a different corner of the world where these heroes have uncovered the intricate webs of corruption. In these countries, invariably, the average citizen is always the loser. Global Witness is out to try and redress some of the imbalances in the world and expose these crooks for who they really are, and how they make their millions and billions.

Undoubtedly the most important book I have read in years.

[Ossian Hempel · Rating 3 out of 5]

First quarter or so was a 5, then it felt a bit repetitive/uninteresting for some time (maybe I lost focus), before picking up in the end. Very interesting topic though.

[Stephen Pritchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are so lucky to have people like this fighting for what is just and right

[BookStarRaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick Take: Illegal organizations around the world fund their activities through shady transactions. The NGO, Global Witness, works to uncover these sources of income and bring them to light.

Very Bad People by Patrick Alley is the story of how corrupt forces fund their illegal enterprises. in the 1980’s, Patrick Alley and a few friends decided to start an NGO called Global Witness. Global Witness’ main objective was to bring to light how corrupt organizations fund their activities.

Global Witness’ first foray was into the jungles of Cambodia. They had heard that the Khmer Rouge was funding their organization with illegal timber sales. Posing as European timber purchasers they headed to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. They soon obtained camera and video footage of the illegal timber that supposedly didn’t exist and publicized it in Europe and the US. This led to the actual closing of the timber trade. After their first success they moved to uncover the secrets of the diamond trade in Africa.

According to Alley, “Corruption is a cancer that eats away at societies. It chews the innards out of the rule of law; it favors the rich and powerful at the expense of the world’s most vulnerable people: it undermines international efforts to protect the environment and it gnaws away at the foundations of democracy itself.” In fact, to a greater or lesser extent, we are all victims of corruption. The trouble is that most of us don’t know it.”

I thoroughly enjoyed following Alley and his fellow Global Witness compatriots on their adventures into dangerous places. The world needs more organizations willing to do the challenging work to uncover corruption and bring it to light. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Rating: 4/5
Genre: Non-Fiction

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a 3.5! The author is very engaging and is good at explaining complicated topics. However due to the nature of the book some parts are very dense with lots of details and names of organisations, government bodies, international bodies etc. This information is all important and 80% of it is very relevant to the story however it makes it hard to come back to if you’ve left it for more than a day or two.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite a disturbing book simply because the stories relayed are true. If you dint know that you would think you were reading a really good, but at times far fetched thriller! The author Patrick Alley was one of the founders of Global Witness, an NGO founded in 1993 by 3 young people who wanted to investigate the illegal trade in felled timber between Thailand and Cambodia. Their story exposed the extent of the corruption involved and this then generated their thirst to investigate and bring to light other cases of massive corruption; particularly in areas important to the long term sustainability of our planet.

In astonishing revelations they expose the massive amounts of monies effectively stolen from the peoples of predominantly poor countries. The worst thing is the extent to which global institutions and well known energy companies are involved, along with financial and legal institutions without whose complicity most of the thefts could not take place. From South East Asia through West Africa and to Europe and the UK people and companies are brought to justice through the investigations of Global Witness.

Telling the true stories behind many of the stories that I’ve heard about but not realised the full extent. The blood diamond controversy where diamonds are mined in war zones and sold to finance conflicts is the one I though I knew about but it was so much worse than I understood. At times you feel like you are reading a shocking work of fiction and then you realise these horrors are real. An enthralling read but sadly it is a continuing fight to root out such evils ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems difficult to keep stories both true (puristically speaking) and consistently interesting.

Alley provides a comprehensive exploration of Global Witnesses' work across the last 25+ years and whilst often fascinating, it at times felt too detail laden. An understanding of stakeholders, bureaucracy, and the legislative specifics is undeniably important, but I just preferred the cool undercover stuff (perhaps as an organisation grows, its own bureaucratic processes obstruct these exploits in favour of office analyses?).

Nice shoutout to the Isle of Man as a neutral site to move corrupt money into.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure This Book Details Some Corruption, But...

This was an okay book on corruption

Quite frankly I think that it missed a few large sure bigger more important cases of corruption that we see in the world - especially today...
Some totalitarian examples, for example.

Still I found it a good read on the economic factors behind corruption

Pretty upsetting!

4.0/5

[Bob Mcdermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book but frustrating to realise how much corruption there is in the world, and how the wealth of countries is being stolen from the people by their leaders.

[Olivier Mok · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Land is the most valuable natural resource of all. The 200 people who are killed each year defending their territory against corporations, are testament to that.' - Global Witness

A fantastic anthology of case studies showing the power that investigative journalism combined with global judicial lobbying can do to combat high-level corruption.

By no means a positive book, it refers to a 'shadow network' - the complex interplay between the regulated and unregulated global economy, exploited by legal loopholes across jurisdictions.

The scale of monetary value referenced inside is staggering - but it provides numerous examples and evidence as to how sustained and uncontrolled [capitalist] growth is the driving factor in the described exploits.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought harder about asking to see this book than any other this year. Did I really want a self-righteous, "greed is bad" economics book railing about the state of the world and the people in it, and peddling interventionist, and even worse, Marxist, market ideas at me? Wasn't it just some bonkers look at a "shadow network" of people running the world from behind closed doors, pulling diplomatic and business strings alike without scrutiny, and being one step from David Icke's lizard rulers? Well, I got completely the wrong end of the stick.

This is more or less a "my life at work" autobiography of our author, who was one of three people to found something called Global Witness, almost as an offshoot of another body I'd never heard of. And while their railing against the world and the people in it is concerned with money, it's so much more, and so much easier to get behind. Their very first case was going to the borderlands of Cambodia in order to prove that the Khmer Rouge were still dealing in timber from the rainforests, and that corruption was still allowing them to trade over the allegedly sealed border with Thailand, thus funding their war machine. The second big case (I say big, I only have it on authority here as a heck of a lot of this has passed me by) brought blood diamonds to the fore, and ever since then they have meshed the environmental campaign with the political. This destructive ecological activity is the only reason someone can afford these weapons. This country would be so much better if the people knew their country's oil wealth was being spent their on them and not on $380m megayachts for corrupt presidential sons.

The writing, which is excellent if slightly too keen on describing people's style of spectacles, and which loves giving friendly people a first name appellation and sticking everyone else with their surname, is generally following the path from three-people-meeting-round-pub-tables start-up to big package, with journalistic nous, lawyers and so on. That said, it covers issues in concise yet forensic manner, so the African "oily-garch" is separate from the diamond monopoly, and so on. It both builds as one solid narrative and yet branches out into the individual campaigns, some of which are sustained for decades.

And not one bit of their ideology did I find objectionable. From proving how much of London is owned by ex-Soviet political families, none of which paid themselves anything like enough to afford that lifestyle, officially, to proving how damnably dangerous it is to be an indigenous campaigner for the rainforests under that nutjob in Brazil, this is all worthwhile, never sounding worthy on the page, and done in ways that seem to make a firm, inarguable point. But what it can find no way to do is to swipe an answer across the world, and the only seeming solution is for us all to just buy less. If we could use a heck of a lot less fossil fuels the bribery money sweeping to and fro in Africa's extraction industries would not be needed. No family group would have 80% of the world's trade in diamonds, and pretend they can't tell ones from war zones from ones from safe areas. The Brazilian beef growing on deforested land, soon to be desert, has an environmental cost 18 times what little income it generates.

Of course, that's all said and done (and when I say 'buy less' I don't apply that to this book, OK? It's perfectly worth a purchase). From this evidence none of the major European banks are safe to use, for the way they bankroll said Brazilian beef producers. So we're going to have to be pretty much Luddites if we can't buy anything, bank anywhere and cannot use social media for the extreme political ferment it's seemingly designed to produce.

So, no answers, but no screeching wokery and Marxist tripe-waffle (I used the word tripe instead of another word in my misquote there). And let's face it, anybody who gets funding from someone as iffy as George Soros (who famously made a billion dollars, back when a billion dollars actually meant something, overnight by headbutting the British currency) is never going to be that left of centre. There's a huge irony in these guys being in bed with that oligarch, his charities and endowments notwithstanding, but in a world where there's dirt, dodginess and dastardliness wherever you look, the author here and his colleagues do end up seeming very much like the good guys.

[Kate Potapenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest.
Now I realise I am fighting for Humanity.
Chico Mendes


This is the most inspirational book I've read in a very long time, if not ever.

It's written in the best traditions of Ian Fleming's James Bond series, with undercover agents going to hot places (and I don't just mean temperature wise) to take on villains aka Very Bad People.. But the biggest difference is that these people are true heroes, the villains are real and they don't do what they do for a reward, the only aim is to save humanity.

There are so many lessons, stories and ideas within these 300 odd pages, but one of the most important points for me was that all you need is determination to do the right thing and if you really want to, you will find a way.


"... we would take down the Khmer Rouge. Naive beyond believe. Unrealistic, idealistic and very likely impossible. ... 'How the f**k...?'", but "On November 15 1993, Global Witness was born. It had no office, no money and no logo. But it had life"

Now, almost 30 years later, they are still doing everything they can and go after the very bad people. Unfortunately this war is not over and most likely will never end. But because of people and establishments like Global Witness (and in their own words all that GW is is their people) life of criminals is being made harder. Much harder in fact.

And they're not about to stop.


P.S. This review doesn't do the book any justice. It is one of these rare cases where I just want to say "You HAVE to read it! Because it's so very good, eye opening and inspirational.".

[Sophied · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really admire Global Witness as an organisation and the stories in this book are interesting. However, after about three chapters (each chapter is a different case) it gets quite repetitive and boring. The essence of corruption is the same regardless of whether it’s about logging, diamonds, oil, etc. So after a while I felt I was reading the same stories with different actors. There is also a lot of info regarding names and dates that jump between the chapters so it felt a bit all over the place at times. I enjoyed the first few chapters of the book but after that I found myself struggling to pick it up again.

[Seher · Rating 4 out of 5]

“By the mid-1990s, 80 per cent of all the diamonds being dug out of the ground globally were purchased by one company - De Beers. But it was more than just a company. It was a hugely powerful cartel enabling De Beers to set the global market price of diamonds.
To maintain their monopoly and keep diamond prices high, De Beers had to buy every diamond they could lay their hands on, regardless of who was selling it, where it came from or at what human cost.”


Thank you @randomthingstours for the chance to read and review Very Bad People by Patrick Alley!

If you’re into things like Bad Blood and Ana Delvey, then you’ll really enjoy reading this. Of course, even though Patrick tries to be funny at points, this book is information heavy so it’s not a light bedtime read. You will need to highlight a lot of things to look up later. I do feel like this book assumes you know a bit about global affairs (which is only fair).

Long story short, this is about the people who wrote the report that brought about the term blood diamonds. I think it’s well worth a read and an excellent example about how people can do with very little as long as they have some nerve. I think it’s only in my sleep repaired state that I’m not completely horrified by what I’ve been reading; these are real people whose lives have been ruined as a result of corruption that we all turn a blind eye too.

“But it missed the point of why the summit was being held at all: because London is the place to stash your dodgy cash because London is also fantastically corrupt. Corruption is a truly globalized industry.”

I also how Patrick constantly brings us back to the UK and US to show us how money is cleaned up in these countries. It’s a great way to remind everyone that no, corruption is not a brown person thing. I also loved that he so intentionally named names!

[Lyn Failes · Rating 4 out of 5]

🌟🌟🌟🌟
#bookreview #booktours
#verybadpeople

Plot - I’ve always known that the world is full of shady people, lurking in the darkness, doing some dodgy deals and terrible things. This book follows a team called #GlobalWitness as they research and uncover corruption all the way up to government level.

Pace - The book is split into chapters, each discussing a different story of con-men, gangsters and corruption. It goes into detail of what crimes are being committed and by whom.

Plot Development - The whole book opens your eyes to the criminalities that are being committed and covered up by high up people all over the world. Most of them., it seems, has money at its root. The author has written in a way that explains everything they do and the dangers they face.

Characters - The whole book is formed around the group Global Witness, who were brought together to research and expose criminals dealing with things such as weapons, diamonds, oil, and live a rich and luxurious lifestyle. The group are extremely brave and have faced backlash from some of the groups they’ve exposed.

Enjoyability - I thoroughly enjoyed this real life account of the atrocities that are going on, under the radar, to this day.

Ease of reading - Extremely easy to read. Each chapter covering something different, but sometimes they entwine with each other.

I’d recommend this book for lover of true crime, investigation and crime research.

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[ACottageFullofBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Bad People is an expose on some of the most corrupt people in the world. Global Witness is an organisation that was co-founded by Patrick Alley in 1993 that has gone on to uncover terrible regimes and sinister deals around the world.

The book begins with how Global Witness started and their first ever undercover operation in Cambodia in the 1990s. It’s a fast-paced book that takes you on a dark and often terrifying journey around the world.

After Cambodia, we find out about blood diamonds in Angola and go on to read about corruption all over the world including in Europe. It struck me as amazing, that the employees of Global Witness were so brave when they went undercover into many situations.

I did really enjoy reading this, but I think the most shocking thing about this book is that it is real life and not a fictional account. I certainly feel that my eyes have been opened to dealings that I have never even imagined occurring all over the world.

This is a very well written book that is absorbing to read. The descriptions of the locations are really brought to life and you feel like you’re there with them. I just wish that it wasn’t all true and was actually fiction!

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a lot of non-fiction books and very bad people by Patrick Alley it’s one of the best I have come across. It is about regular people. Doing astounding things getting justice in a country where there isn’t any justice, Stopping those who profit off of war and bullies who created I especially love the guy Brennan who worked for the environmental nonprofit and filed a documented tear down St. Patrick’s Church to dig under it for minerals all because someone wanted to do that with a tribes mountain it wasn’t just any mountain it’s where they believe their God was in people from the west wanted to dig for minerals and probably thought nothing of it. I absolutely love this book and think it should be read by high school students I am definitely going to get my local library to get a copy. This should be mandatory reading just to be an adult and a citizen of the earth we live on. I especially agree that companies should be billed for the environmental damage they do if they did so much damage wouldn’t happen. I love this book and can’t believe it all started over pints in a pub. I was given this book by Net Gally and I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any grammar or punctuation errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

[Kathleen Riggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Bad People is The Inside Story of the Fight Against the World’s Network of Corruption human rights and saving our environment. by Patrick Alley.
This book is about money laundering, corrupt politicians, and how the group called global Witness go undercover and risk their own life’s to help stop the most corrupt people around the world. The group go to work at what could be a great cost to themselves, as they venture with hidden cameras into war zones and go undercover into jungles and collect the evidence to bring these people to justice. Global Witness are the true heroes who try to fight the people at the top where so many corrupt rich and powerful people hide behind there love for money and power.
They hurt, rape, murder or maimed humans for there own selfishness and they do not care about the most vulnerable of human kind. I thoroughly enjoyed following everybody and there stories and this book brings true incite into the organisation willing to do the work and bring the corruption into the light. We need more organisations all over the world to help do this work.
I highly recommend this book and I would like to thank NetGalley for providing the ARC of this book and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Stace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Bad People by Patrick Alley is quite a harrowing book. It certainly opens your eyes to some of the bad things that are happening in the world right under your nose. It’s also not an easy read especially as I felt as the book progressed it became obvious that the same things were happening over and over again in different countries with slight variations.

I liked the way the book was set out and that each section told you exactly where the events were occurring and in what year. It is quite touching to know that there are people out there that are fighting for what’s right and exposing corruption even if that means they are putting themselves in danger.

The book opens with a foreword and then an introduction to how Global Witness came about. The first place the team travelled to was Cambodia to uncover how the Khmer Rouge were funding their activities by illegally downing and selling timber. When you think of illegal activities you think of diamond trades, etc – Which come later, but I personally hadn’t even thought of timber being sold illegally to fund criminal activities.

I did enjoy the book but like I said above I found it tough going, especially being set out like a fictional novel. When it comes to non-fiction and cases like these I would have preferred to have read it in a large book with maybe some photos to show the devastation that the team came across in each country to help give me some visual references.

Overall, if you are not familiar with some of the atrocities that are happening in this world, mainly in poor countries by wealthy people, then give this book a read.

[Kate Shotliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you hadn’t told me this was a non-fiction, I would have thought it was a collection of short stories – very much spy thriller stuff. I hadn’t heard of Global Witness as a company so I liked the inclusion of the beginnings of the company and their ethos, how so much can be organised in a pub! What really shines through is the dedication that the three founders truly had, they had a goal and they did everything to follow it through, even skip dive for filing cabinets.

It is astonishing but not surprising that money is so corrupting, and through multiple cases proves that absolute power corrupts absolutely often at the expense of the less privileged and poorer members of society. The cases are well written with immense detail which I loved, and I found the book to be super interesting (doesn’t really feel like enjoyable is the right word here!) Also, a great book to dip in and out of as the cases are self contained and cover a huge range of topics.

Thank you to Random Things Tours and Octopus Books for my copy!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

I've known about Global Witness for years. I've read some of their reports, and I've been impressed by the dedication they show in their investigations, and by the impact that they've had.

I never, though, knew how the organization started. I didn't know anything about the real danger that they face when doing work in the field.

Alley's book is a really rollicking story about the group and its work, from its earliest days getting dreamed up over pints in North London, to the hundred or so people taking on corruption in oil, diamonds, iron mining and more around the world. He covers a number of investigations in detail, including who did what and how things happened on the ground. It'd be compelling storytelling if it were fiction. It's nearly breathtaking as fact.

I absolutely loved this book.

[Angi Plant · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you know nothing about Global Witness, and I only knew bits, this book will completely shock you. It also goes to show what can be done when ordinary people stand up and say NO to things that are unacceptable.

I’m not for a second that we all take to the streets crusading and putting ourselves in dangerous situations. That said, these guys who sat in a pub and pulled together an organisation that would pull down massive big money corporations who were doing things they knew they shouldn’t are nothing short of heroic. Had I read this as a story I’d have thought it was a fantastic story rather than truth.

This is a very well written, often shocking story. Some stories are woven loosely together and others in the book are separate, as you might imagine. It is a huge eye opener.

With thanks to Anne Cater, Octopus and the author for the advanced reading copy of this book

[Davo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to enjoy this book and the investigations they led, however the writer fails to tell the story.

All those years of writing press releases to argue corruption seems to have affected his ability to tell an engaging story for the wider audience. There is a significant focus on the legislative process and people and organisations involved. This is both dry and confusing due it’s to complex nature. Simplifying this would have made such a better book in my opinion.

It can also feel one side and fails to explain how some matters came to be like the introduction of various contacts. They just appear for the most part.

There are moments of good story telling but I doubt a lot of readers would see as most won’t finish the book. Even I’m losing energy to continue.

Finished on page 198.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started off so well and I felt like there was a lot of action. Then in the mid-section there were a few stories of legal wrangling and paperwork, no action and it was very boring to read. Then it picked up towards the end and the epilogue rounded up everything really well.

This is the story of Global Witness, a humanitarian not for profit set up by a bunch of mates who started off by investigating how the Khmer Rouge were able to fund their civil war in Cambodia. They realised the regime were selling Cambodian logs to the Thai government. Money was also being poured in from the Cambodian government. Highlighting the corruption of government to keep unnecessary suffering of civilians. There are other stories they investigated such as selling of natural resource excavation sites by governments/dictators at the detriment to their own people. How the Western world is cupable of laundering the money from corrupt governments.

[Alex Rotenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like a thriller and unveils the shadow economy of lobbyists, bankers and lawyers supporting criminal transactions and white collar law violations, circumventing international and local government policies and regulations.

Global Witness puts the spotlight on these practices and uncovered a few major crime scenes in some of the most remote corners of the world.


From the blood diamonds in West Africa to tropical forrest logging in Cambodia, illegal power generation on indigen territory in Honduras, corrupt oil transactions in Nigeria or oligarchs looting their countries, we get a vast panorama of the involved actors.

Definitely worth a read!

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep-dive into the 'frontline' investigative work and campaigning of London-based Global Witness. Always amazing to see how a few tenacious people can make a difference to hold brutal rulers and multi-billion industries to account. The book takes readers on a pretty wild ride of daring travels and undercover meetings with nasty characters, with funny (and scary) anecdotes about the chances that activists take. Beyond the investigations, the book explains campaigning tactics to change corrupt systems that have turned rich countries into poor nations. A moving and inspiring book.