The Best White Collar True Crime Books 2025

1. The Spider Network (Hardcover)

SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR The term "Libor" is obscure, but it determines a good deal of our financial lives-the interest rate on our credit card; our student loans; our mortgages; our car payments. How did a math genius, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system conspire to pickpocket you? They were in your wallet to already. In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the world's largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor--the London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide--was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a shadowy team that used hook and crook to take over the process and set rates that made them a fortune, no matter the cost to others. Among the motley crew was a French trader nicknamed "Gollum"; the broker "Abbo," who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called "Clumpy" because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed "Big Nose." Eventually known as the "Spider Network," Hayes's circle generated untold riches --until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion. Praised as reading "like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller" (New York Times), "compelling" (Washington Post) and "jaw-dropping" (Financial Times), The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was warped and shady throughout.

The Spider Network (Hardcover)

2. Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend, (Paperback)

It was a time when anything seemed possible-instant wealth, glittering fame, fabulous luxury-and for a run of magical weeks in the spring and summer of 1920, Charles Ponzi made it all come true. Promising to double investors' money in three months, the dapper, charming Ponzi raised the "rob Peter to pay Paul" scam to an art form. At the peak of his success, Ponzi was raking in more than $2 million a week at his office in downtown Boston. Then his house of cards came crashing down-thanks in large part to the relentless investigative reporting of Richard Grozier's Boston Post. A classic American tale of immigrant life and the dream of success, Ponzi's Scheme is the amazing story of the magnetic scoundrel who launched the most successful scheme of financial alchemy in modern history.

Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend, (Paperback) Author: Random House Publishing Group ISBN: 9780812968361 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2006-01-10 Page Count: 416

3. No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, (Paperback)

Harry Markopolos and his team of financial sleuths discuss first-hand how they cracked the Madoff Ponzi scheme No One Would Listen is the thrilling story of how the Harry Markopolos, a little-known number cruncher from a Boston equity derivatives firm, and his investigative team uncovered Bernie Madoff's scam years before it made headlines, and how they desperately tried to warn the government, the industry, and the financial press. Page by page, Markopolos details his pursuit of the greatest financial criminal in history, and reveals the massive fraud, governmental incompetence, and criminal collusion that has changed thousands of lives forever-as well as the world's financial system. The only book to tell the story of Madoff's scam and the SEC's failings by those who saw both first hand Describes how Madoff was enabled by investors and fiduciaries alike Discusses how the SEC missed the red flags raised by Markopolos Despite repeated written and verbal warnings to the SEC by Harry Markopolos, Bernie Madoff was allowed to continue his operations. No One Would Listen paints a vivid portrait of Markopolos and his determined team of financial sleuths, and what impact Madoff's scam will have on financial markets and regulation for decades to come.

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, (Paperback) Author: Wiley ISBN: 9780470919002 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2011-02-08 Page Count: 368

4. Pre-Owned The Informant: A True Story (Paperback) 0767903277 9780767903271

From an award-winning New York Times investigative reporter comes a gripping account of one of the most captivating and bizarre tales in the history of the FBI and corporate America. It was one of the FBI's biggest secrets: Mark Whitacre, a senior executive at Archer Daniels Midland--America's most politically powerful corporation--became a confidential government witness. Putting his career and family at risk, Whitacre, along with a small team of agents, tapped into secrets at ADM that led the FBI to discover the company's scheme to steal millions of dollars from its own customers. But as the FBI and federal prosecutors closed in on ADM, they suddenly found that everything was not all that it appeared. While Whitacre was cooperating with the Feds and playing the role of loyal company man, he also had his own agenda. Whitacre became sucked into his own world of James Bond antics, imperiling the criminal case and creating a web of deceit that left the FBI and prosecutors uncertain where the lies stopped and the truth began. Meticulously researched and richly told, The Informant re-creates the drama of the story, beginning with the secret recordings, stakeouts, and interviews with suspects and witnesses to the power struggles within ADM and its board--including the high-profile chairman Dwayne Andreas, F. Ross Johnson, and Brian Mulroney--to the big-gun Washington lawyers hired by ADM, and on up through the ranks of the Justice Department to FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno. A page-turning real-life thriller that features deadpan FBI agents, crooked executives, idealistic lawyers, and shady witnesses with an addiction to intrigue, The Informant tells an important and compelling story of power and betrayal in America

Title: The Informant: A True Story Book Format: Paperback ISBN10: 0767903277 EAN: 9780767903271 Genre: TRUE CRIME / White Collar Crime Author: Eichenwald, Kurt Pre-Owned Condition- Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.

5. Pre-Owned White-Collar and Corporate Crime (Paperback) 0131192884 9780131192881

This text is a part of a Prentice Hall Masters Series in Criminology which features brief books (100-200 pages) on special topics in Criminology. Written by two masterminds in the Criminology field, this text on White Collar & Corporate Crime by Gilbert Geis and Henry Pontell is scholarly A product of more than half a century of work on the subject, this is the first comprehensive examination of White Collar & Corporate Crime concepts.

Title: White-Collar and Corporate Crime ISBN10: 0131192884 EAN: 9780131192881 Genre: TRUE CRIME / White Collar Crime Author: Geis, Gill; Pontell, Henry; Geis, Gilbert CONDITION - GOOD - Pre-Owned - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.

6. Pre-Owned Treasury's War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare (Hardcover) 1610391152 9781610391153

Finalist for the 2015 William E. Colby Award For more than a decade, America has been waging a new kind of war against the financial networks of rogue regimes, proliferators, terrorist groups, and criminal syndicates. Juan Zarate, a chief architect of modern financial warfare and a former senior Treasury and White House official, pulls back the curtain on this shadowy world. In this gripping story, he explains in unprecedented detail how a small, dedicated group of officials redefined the Treasury's role and used its unique powers, relationships, and reputation to apply financial pressure against America's enemies. This group unleashed a new brand of financial power-one that leveraged the private sector and banks directly to isolate rogues from the international financial system. By harnessing the forces of globalization and the centrality of the American market and dollar, Treasury developed a new way of undermining America's foes. Treasury and its tools soon became, and remain, critical in the most vital geopolitical challenges facing the United States, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and the regimes in Iran, North Korea, and Syria. This book is the definitive account, by an unparalleled expert, of how financial warfare has taken pride of place in American foreign policy and how America's competitors and enemies are now learning to use this type of power themselves. This is the unique story of the United States' financial war campaigns and the contours and uses of financial power, and of the warfare to come.

Treasury's War

7. Best Business Crime Writing of the Year (Paperback)

9781400033713. New condition. Trade paperback. Language: English. Pages: 272. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 272 p. From some of our most talented and perceptive crime writers--an entertaining anthology of true stories from the front lines of the war zone that has become American business today. - "Lovely and juicy. It's all about egos, excess, lack of caution." --USA Today A year ago it would have been difficult to conceive of an anthology of stories solely devoted to corporate malfeasance. Today, the challenge has been to keep it confined to one volume. From P.J. O'Rourke's hilarious "How To Stuff A Wild Enron," in which he compares trying to understand Enron's finances to trying to buy an airline ticket at the best price, to Marc Peyser's's perceptive look at that American institution, Martha Stewart, to Joe Nocera's investigation of how it all went wrong, the stories here are sometimes infuriating, often entertaining, and invariably informative. Includes: - "The New Bull Market" by Michael Kinsley from Slate - "In Praise of Corporate Corruption Boom" by Michael Lewis from Bloomberg News - "HardBall" by David McClintick from Forbes - "The Accountants' War" by Jane Mayer from the New Yorker - "Enron Debacle Highlights the Trouble With Stock Options" by Thomas Stewart from Business 2.0 - "Investigating ImClone" by Alex Prud'homme from Vanity Fair

From some of our most talented and perceptive crime writers—an entertaining anthology of true stories from the front lines of the war zone that has become American business today. • “Lovely and juicy. It's all about egos, excess, lack of caution.” —USA Today A year ago it would have been difficult to conceive of an anthology of stories solely devoted to corporate malfeasance. Today, the challenge has been to keep it confined to one volume. From P.J. O’Rourke’s hilarious “How To Stuff A Wild Enron,” in which he compares trying to understand Enron’s finances to trying to buy an airline ticket at the best price, to Marc Peyser’s’s perceptive look at that American institution, Martha Stewart, to Joe Nocera’s investigation of how it all went wrong, the stories here are sometimes infuriating, often entertaining, and invariably informative. Includes: • “The New Bull Market” by Michael Kinsley from Slate • “In Praise of Corporate Corruption Boom” by Michael Lewis from Bloomberg News • “HardBall” by David McClintick from Forbes • “The Accountants’ War” by Jane Mayer from the New Yorker • “Enron Debacle Highlights the Trouble With Stock Options” by Thomas Stewart from Business 2.0 • “Investigating ImClone” by Alex Prud’homme from Vanity Fair

8. Dishonest Dollars: The Dynamics of White-Collar Crime, (Hardcover)

In an environment where corporate scandals fill the headlines and ethics courses have suddenly become standard fare in business schools, Terry Leap offers welcome insights into and useful ways of thinking about a critical problem that permeates our society. His main contribution is an integrative model of white-collar crime, which smoothly incorporates influences from sociology, psychology, public policy, and business. As he explains the process that occurs across the many different categories of crimes within organizations, he finds that there are more similarities than differences between "criminals in the suites" and "criminals in the streets."Leap's definition of crimes within organizations and the people who commit them are laid out in his first chapter. He then goes on to discuss the causes of and events surrounding white-collar crime, types of crimes and criminals, the decision-making processes of white-collar criminals, and the impact of these crimes. His concluding chapter predicts future trends in corporate crime, including an explanation of why we are likely to see more crime in health care. Throughout, Leap presents numerous specific examples and cases--from famous meltdowns such as Enron and WorldCom to less-publicized incidents including a weight-loss franchisee mislabeling doughnuts as low fat and a CEO of a South Carolina regional transportation authority misusing taxpayer money for lavish meals, personal expenses, and world travel.

Dishonest Dollars: The Dynamics of White-Collar Crime, (Hardcover) Author: ILR Press ISBN: 9780801445200 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2007-01-15 Page Count: 256

9. Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks, (Paperback)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the award-winning author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing--and one of the most decorated journalists of our time--twelve enthralling true stories of skulduggery and intrigue "An excellent collection of Keefe's detective work, and a fine introduction to his illuminating writing." --NPR "Fast-paced...Keefe is a virtuoso storyteller." --The Washington Post Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. As Keefe says in his preface "They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial." Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the "worst of the worst," among other bravura works of literary journalism. The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them.

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks, (Paperback) Author: Random House Large Print Publishing ISBN: 9780593607800 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2022-07-26 Page Count: 592

10. Heist

The inspiration behind the major motion picture Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, and Jason Sudeikis! The bizarre true story of the criminals behind the second-largest bank heist in American history. One night in a small North Carolina town, a down-on-his-luck guard at Loomis Fargo manages to steal $17 million--literally more than one ton of cash. Despite being caught on camera wheeling the money from the vault to the getaway van, David Ghantt makes off to Mexico before the FBI can blink. There's just one hitch: Ghantt has entrusted the money to an oddball crew of accomplices who had wooed him into committing this massive theft in the first place--and who, he soon learns, are trying to take him out. Now one of the most wanted men in America with the FBI hot on his heels, Ghantt must figure out how to get his money, get away from a hit man, and get even. In this outrageously entertaining book, Jeff Diamant, the Charlotte Observer's lead reporter on the case, offers the definitive inside account of this astonishing true story that has captivated American audiences on the news and now on the big screen in the major motion picture, Masterminds.

Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft, (Paperback) Author: Sourcebooks ISBN: 9781492625162 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2015-08-04 Page Count: 272