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Kleptopia

How Dirty Money is Conquering the World

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Kleptopia

By: Tom Burgis
Narrated by: Tom Burgis
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SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘If you think the UK isn't corrupt, you haven't looked hard enough … This terrifying book follows a global current of dirty money, and the murders and kidnappings required to sustain it’ GEORGE MONBIOT, GUARDIAN AN ECONOMIST AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

‘When you pick this book up, you won’t be able to put it down’ MISHA GLENNY, author of MCMAFIA

‘Gripping, disturbing and deeply reported’ BEN RHODES, bestselling author of THE WORLD AS IT IS

In this real-life thriller packed with jaw-dropping revelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis reveals a terrifying global web of kleptocracy and corruption.

Kleptopia follows the dirty money that is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, enriching oligarchs and poisoning democracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, London to the Trump White House, it shows how the thieves are uniting – and the terrible human cost.

A body in a burned-out Audi. Workers riddled with bullets in the Kazakh desert. A rigged election in Zimbabwe. A British banker silenced and humiliated for trying to expose the truth about the City of London – the world’s piggy bank for blood money.

Riveting, horrifying and written like fiction, this book shows that while we are looking the other way, all that we hold most dear is being stolen.

 Corruption & Misconduct International Organized Crime Politics & Government True Crime Russia Africa Crime Exciting Scary Thought-Provoking Inspiring Imperialism Banking China
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Critic reviews

‘A ghastly and very important story’
Guardian
‘A meticulously reported piece of investigative journalism written in the style of a fast-paced thriller … Gripping … Kleptopia is not a far away republic in central Asia; it is all around us’
The Times
‘I don’t do book reviews. But I am reading Kleptopia very slowly as I have to keep picking my jaw up off the floor … Fascinating. Terrifying’
Paul Lewis
‘I might not have read, or even heard of Tom Burgis if ENRC hadn’t sued. Now I’m in. #Kleptopia’ Hugh Laurie
‘A must-read… A magisterial account of the money and violence behind the world’s most powerful dictatorships … Meticulously reported’
Washington Post
‘The architects of our national security would do well to bring to their meetings a well-thumbed copy … It unpicks the filthy flipside of globalisation … Incendiary’
Edward Lucas, The Times
‘Does the job brilliantly … with a hero straight out of a John le Carré novel … Wonderfully if grimly entertaining’
Economist
‘His landmark book he lays bare what we need to know, and act upon … Burgis provides us with the terrifying evidence. Read it and act’
Jon Snow
‘Read Kleptopia now. There is no time to lose … Tom Burgis demonstrates that money does indeed stink — and shows how to follow its scent’
Roberto Saviano
‘A powerful, appalling, and stunningly reported exposé … It reads like fiction, but unfortunately is all too true: Burgis names names, and follows the money, right into the Trump White House … Shows how dark money has grown from a national problem into an international scourge’
Jane Mayer
‘Reveals exactly why in the last thirty years organised crime and financial capitalism have fused to create a force of such power that no government or leader is free from the pressure it is able to apply … When you pick this book up, you won't be able to put it down’
Misha Glenny
All stars
Most relevant
Unbelievable but true. A real life thriller of our scary depth of corruption. Well written and well read.

Great must read book

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expertly narrated by the author giving a no-holds-barred look at how kleptocrats have infiltrated worldwide democracies.

A great and compelling dissection...

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This is a really interesting book and would have given five stars but for the poor narration.

Fascinating book

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Fascinating and horrifying in equal measures. The book uncovers the way that dirty money has taken over our democracy leading to the privatization of power.

Must read/listen for the times we are in

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So as the ending comments say, the solution is honesty as a weapon against all this corruption. But how do we incentivise people to take risks against these powers? it seems they tend to only kill people who are based in/come from the corrupt regimes. They do seem to fear the wrath of the western powers whose blessing of legitimacy they so crave.
But this is a generation (as in ours in the UK) we haven't known war. We don't know what's at stake if we let the ball slip, and don't keep moving our society forward. We've made great progress in many things. We have to take note of the erosion of truth and honesty as a meaningful quality and attribute to strive for.

Excellent and rather disconcerting

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