The Billion Dollar Whale: Uncovering the Story of the Man Who Defrauded Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

Kevin H: I knew about the 1MDB affair and heard of Najib, Jho Low, Leissner, Ng etc but I didn't realise the extent of the fraud. I couldn't stop reading as it was just more and more outrageous.

Definitely worth reading out of pure interest at how deep a fraud can go.

United States on Nov 09, 2023

RR: excellent, read it three times

Canada on Oct 28, 2023

Arthur T. Himmelman: The authors tell an unbelievably complex story as a fascinating tale of a criminal genius directing one of the largest financial scams ever. It reads like the best fiction thriller while documenting the factual reality of the theft of tens of billions of dollars.

United States on Sep 23, 2023

NMD: Ce qui est essentiel est que le livre a été bien livré. Le livre est intéressant à lire et décrit bien le vol de plusieurs milliards de USD au détriment du gouvernement malaisien.

France on Aug 16, 2023

MGoBlue: The authors do a great job telling the story but here and there inject some offhand comment about “global capitalism” or the “global financial system” and then never explain how this story is an indictment of either. What is clear is this happened due to obvious cronyism and kleptocracy in countries with weaker institutions. At one point in the epilogue, the authors contend that this would not have happened without executives from countries around the world (my paraphrase). But the evidence for this is thin. While executives were certainly involved and even culpable in certain cases, the 1MDB debacle never happens without the corruption in Malaysia and the willingness of people in authoritarian countries (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) buying into the grift. The executives were just reacting to the incentives, unfortunately without honor. For every dirtbag banker at Goldman there are 100 individuals who do not engage the the shady practices described in this book. Can the same be said about the politicians?

United States on Jan 12, 2023

Javier FG: Very entertaining story. Couldn’t put it down.

Spain on Jan 06, 2023

Lluis: Excelente libro de periodismo de investigación. Bien explicado. Engancha desde la primera hasta la última página.

Spain on Dec 12, 2022

Michael_Lux: Good read and well written. Authors have spent a great deal of time on research and it shines through during the read.

Germany on Apr 14, 2022

John Walker: Low Taek Jho, who westernised his name to “Jho Low”, which I will use henceforth, was the son of a wealthy family in Penang, Malaysia. The family's fortune had been founded by Low's grandfather who had immigrated to the then British colony of Malaya from China and founded a garment manufacturing company which Low's father had continued to build and recently sold for a sum of around US$ 15 million. The Low family were among the wealthiest in Malaysia and wanted the best for their son. For the last two years of his high school education, Jho was sent to the Harrow School, a prestigious private British boarding school whose alumni include seven British Prime Ministers including Winston Churchill and Robert Peel, and “foreign students” including Jawaharlal Nehru and King Hussein of Jordan. At Harrow, he would meet classmates whose families' wealth was in the billions, and his ambition to join their ranks was fired.

After graduating from Harrow, Low decided the career he wished to pursue would be better served by a U.S. business education than the traditional Cambridge or Oxford path chosen by many Harrovians and enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton...

United States on Jul 26, 2019

Jonathan: Tom Wright and Bradley Hope’s Billion Dollar Whale is an imperfect but still essential read for those interested in the 1MDB scandal and chronicles of financial malfeasance and fraud in general. But there are some limitations to be aware of in this otherwise briskly reported book: Unlike other recent chronicles of lies, power, and politics gone wrong like Bad Blood, Black Edge, or Dark Money, you will not find a meticulous appendix or a voluminous list of citations and references. Instead, Wright and Hope focus the bulk of their narrative on the life and lies of Jho Low, the man who orchestrated the massive theft of money from 1MDB, the so-called sovereign wealth fund.

Deciding to focus on Low is perhaps the greatest strength and weakness of the book. The authors tell at times exceedingly long and vivid anecdotes of Low indulging in his vices (parties, celebrities, gambling, mansions, art, jewelry, etc.), so much so that there are times where one wishes Wright and Hope brought the same narrative detail and word count to the arcana of their financial crimes. For example, in one early section of the book Wright and Hope cite the first of many “rumors in banking circles”...

United States on Dec 26, 2018