The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Maths Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

by David Enrich (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2017

  $4.25

  Shortlisted for the FT & McKinsey Book Prize! `Will snare you in its web of deceit, lies, corruption, manipulation and colourful characters. [a] brilliant investigative expose' - Harlan Coben, bestselling thriller author `Reads like a fast-paced John le Carre thriller, and never lets up' - New York Times book review In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor-the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide-was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated administrators, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it fractions of a percent to suit their trading portfolios. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a wild alliance that included a prickly French trader nicknamed Gollum ; the broker Abbo, who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a nervous Kazakh chicken farmer known as Derka Derka ; a broker known as Village (short for Village Idiot ) who racked up huge expense account bills; an executive called Clumpy because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed Big Nose who had once been a semi-professional boxer. This group generated incredible riches -until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion. With exclusive access to key characters and evidence, The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but also a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout.