Money Men
A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
Published on 16. June 2022
352 pages
978-1-4735-9387-9 (ISBN)
Description
The stranger-than-fiction story of Wirecard, once a $30 billion tech darling, now a smouldering wreck, by the journalist who brought it crashing down - perfect for those who loved Bad Blood and Empire of Pain.
'The financial investigation of the decade... Money Men instantly enters the canon of great financial crime books' Bradley Hope, author of The Billion Dollar Whale
'A rip-roaring ride into the underworld of the global economy' Tom Burgis, author of Kleptopia
'A rollercoaster read that reveals everything that's wrong with our financial system' Catherine Belton, author of Putin's People
Now adapted as a Netflix documentary and featuring Jan Marsalek, subject of the FT's Hot Money: Agent of Chaos podcast.
When journalist Dan McCrum followed a tip to investigate the hot new tech company challenging Silicon Valley, everything about Wirecard looked a little too good to be true: offices were sprouting up around the world, it was reporting runaway growth and the CEO even wore a black turtleneck in tribute to Steve Jobs. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market.
As McCrum dug deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined: a world of short sellers and whistleblowers, pornographers and private militias, hackers and spies. Before long he realised that he wasn't the only one in pursuit. Shadowy figures were following him through the streets of London, high-flying lawyers were sending ominous letters to his boss, and he was named as the prime suspect in a criminal inquiry. The race was on to prove his suspicions and clear his name.
Money Men is the astonishing true story of Wirecard's multi-billion-dollar fraud, Europe's biggest new tech darling revealed as a house of cards.
Uncovering fake bank accounts, fake offices and possibly even a fake death, McCrum offers a searing expose that will finally lay bare the truth.
'The financial investigation of the decade... Money Men instantly enters the canon of great financial crime books' Bradley Hope, author of The Billion Dollar Whale
'A rip-roaring ride into the underworld of the global economy' Tom Burgis, author of Kleptopia
'A rollercoaster read that reveals everything that's wrong with our financial system' Catherine Belton, author of Putin's People
Now adapted as a Netflix documentary and featuring Jan Marsalek, subject of the FT's Hot Money: Agent of Chaos podcast.
When journalist Dan McCrum followed a tip to investigate the hot new tech company challenging Silicon Valley, everything about Wirecard looked a little too good to be true: offices were sprouting up around the world, it was reporting runaway growth and the CEO even wore a black turtleneck in tribute to Steve Jobs. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market.
As McCrum dug deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined: a world of short sellers and whistleblowers, pornographers and private militias, hackers and spies. Before long he realised that he wasn't the only one in pursuit. Shadowy figures were following him through the streets of London, high-flying lawyers were sending ominous letters to his boss, and he was named as the prime suspect in a criminal inquiry. The race was on to prove his suspicions and clear his name.
Money Men is the astonishing true story of Wirecard's multi-billion-dollar fraud, Europe's biggest new tech darling revealed as a house of cards.
Uncovering fake bank accounts, fake offices and possibly even a fake death, McCrum offers a searing expose that will finally lay bare the truth.
Reviews / Votes
Book of the week * MoneyWeek * A thrilling, head-spinning book... Money Men hugely rewards the reader when you get the scoop alongside McCrum - you are close to punching the air... A fine testament to the importance of quality journalism. * Irish Times * The best book I read this year was Money Men... It reads like a thriller as he painstakingly exposes the tissue of lies, false accounting and mythical acquisitions that lie behind the company's respectable facade... Brilliant stuff. -- Books of the Year * The Tablet * Well worth your time -- Richard Fletcher * The Times * A fraud so audacious it took the company's auditor, Ernst & Young, years to believe it... McCrum's account may read like a crime drama, but really it is a testament to old-school reporting... At a time when social media is increasingly causing facts to be regarded as beside the point, it is a reminder that the truth is always worth chasing. * New Statesman * McCrum was more responsible than anyone else for the exposure and eventual collapse of the hugely fraudulent payment company... A cross between the Enron scandal and Rosemary's Baby. -- John Lanchester * London Review of Books * Money Men is a rollercoaster read that reveals everything that's wrong with our financial system. Dan McCrum and his colleagues at the FT deserve medals for their tenacious battle to expose the dark heart of Wirecard - the enormous fraud and money laundering machine with shadowy ties. -- Catherine Belton, author of <i>Putin's People</i> Dan McCrum's deep dive into Wirecard was the financial investigation of the decade. Money Men tells the story from inside Wirecard's headquarters with entertaining drama and verve, but it also unspools the high-stakes reporting process McCrum and his colleagues carried out at the Financial Times against the odds. It instantly enters the canon of great financial crime books. -- Bradley Hope, co-author of <i>New York Times</i> bestseller <i>Billion Dollar Whale</i> What a wild ride! Going head to head with powerful executives, their teams of lawyers and intelligence operatives, Dan McCrum has uncovered one of the biggest economic scandals in Europe. Money Men reads like a thriller, but it's all true. -- Frederik Obermaier, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and co-author of <i>The Panama Papers</i> The culmination of years of careful investigative work... A gripping tale. * Evening Standard *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
File size
0,83 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4735-9387-9 (9781473593879)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2023
Penguin (Transworld)
€15.50
Available immediately
Person
Dan McCrum is a member of the Financial Times investigations team. His reporting on Wirecard has been recognised with prizes from the London Press Club, the Society of Editors, the New York Financial Writers' Association, the Overseas Press Club, and the Gerald Loeb awards. He was also awarded the Ludwig Erhard Prize for economic journalism, a Reporters Forum Reporterpreis and a special award by the Helmut Schmidt prize jury for investigative journalism. In 2020, he was named Journalist of the Year at the British Journalism Awards.
