The Billion Dollar Whale

The Billion Dollar Whale, by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright

Dec 30, 2019 5:53:23 PM / by Tim McCarthy

Editor’s comment:  Another “non-fiction that reads more like fiction”.  Jho Low, between graduating from Wharton in 2005 and exposes that began in 2015 appears to have pulled off Madoff-style fraud.  The difference?  It was primarily perpetrated on his home country (Malaysia) and allegedly with the aid of their former Prime Minister, Razak Najib.  Perhaps as much as $5 billion was looted from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund (1MDB) over a six year period, much of which was used for Gatsby-like lifestyle which included many names you know such as DeNiro, DiCaprio, Hilton and more.  I felt a little seedy reading it but my goodness, what a story!  With many charges still pending against both Low and the former Prime Minister, we are likely to be reading more about this story in the future (if they can find Jho Low who is in hiding).      

 

Favorite excerpt:  “You wouldn’t spend money you worked for like that”.  This quote is ironically from a reformed grifter, Jordon Belfort, when he saw the party Jho Low put on to launch his (Low’s) investment in the movie based on Belfort’s book, “The Wolf of Wall Street”!

Tags: Creativity & Favorites

Tim McCarthy

Written by Tim McCarthy