Billion Dollar Whale
The Billion Dollar Whale is a thrilling account of how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. It exposes how a modern Gatsby swindled more than $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs. This started in 2009 when a mild-mannered graduate of the Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude—one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Over a decade, Low siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund—right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. Low used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street. By early 2019, Low had become an international fugitive, even as the U.S. Department of Justice continued its investigation. Billion Dollar Whale has joined the ranks of Liar's Poker, Den of Thieves, and Bad Blood as a classic harrowing parable of hubris and greed in the financial world.
A Financial Times Best Book of 2018
A Fortune magazine Best Book of 2018
"As Bad Blood is to biotech, Billion Dollar Whale is to international finance... a wonderful read... Thrilling."
"What a blast to read! A true life thriller that reads like a Hollywood movie, Billion Dollar Whale traces the exploits of the most mercurial, mysterious big player in history. Jho Low is Gatsby with twice the bank account and ten times the ambition, and the stories surrounding his exploits leap right off the page!"
― Ben Mezrich, New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down The House
"If you like global intrigue, financial crime, wealth porn, and absurdity, Billion Dollar Whale, by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, is for you.... It almost seems made up. Still, anyone who has followed the news out of Malaysia will know that the story is all too real."
"Wright and Hope deliver a scintillating and prodigiously reported tale of a globe-spanning modern Gatsby and his audacious fraud."
― Jesse Eisinger, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for ProPublica and author of The Chickenshit Club
"This story of a Wharton graduate who carried out the $5 billion swindle known as 1MDB offers a textbook case of financial fraud in the modern age."
― New York Times
"An incredible story.... If you need some billionaires to despise--look no further than these charlatans."
― Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit
"Just finished reading Billion Dollar Whale and was blown away. I thought I had seen it all with Russian kleptocracy, but the story of the money stolen in Malaysia in 1MDB and all the enthusiastic Western enablers was unbelievable."
― Bill Browder, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Notice
"Even the most skilled fiction writer would have trouble conjuring the corrupt and colorful protagonist of Billion Dollar Whale. Bradley Hope and Tom Wright's gripping portrait of Jho Low and his enablers throughout the global financial system will both fascinate and enrage you."
― Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer at The New Yorker and New York Times bestselling author of Black Edge