Financial Serial Killers: Inside the World of Wall Street Money Hustlers, Swindlers, and Con Men »

Tom Ajamie is one of the top trial lawyers in the United States and has a long track record of successfully suing financial criminals both domestically and internationally. He has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars—including the largest stock arbitration award in U.S. history, $429 million—from fraudulent individuals, corporations and organized criminal organizations. Ajamie has provided insight and analysis on corporate and financial crimes for leading media outlets, including ABC, CNN, CNBC, NPR, the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Financial Times, BusinessWeek, and Newsweek. He lives is Houston, Texas.

Bruce Kelly is the news editor for InvestmentNews, the leading trade publication for the investment advice business. An award winning journalist, Kelly writes about Wall Street, securities regulation, brokerage firms, and fraud, and was covering the collapse of Ponzi schemes and damage to investors more than a year before Bernie Madoff admitted his $65 billion fraud in December 2008. He lives in New York City, New York.

How to make sure you don’t fall victim to the next Bernie Madoff.

Publishers Weekly

Ajamie, a top securities lawyer, and Kelly, news editor for Investment News, team up to recount true tales of financial frauds throughout history, which make for addictive if depressing reading. Ajamie's expertise in commercial litigation gives the reader an inside look at the complex strategies financial advisers, insurance agents, and even family members employ to fleece hapless individuals, focusing on the false emotional bonds con artists create with their victims in order to take advantage of them. For those who can wade through occasionally disjointed prose with some very jarring changes in tone, there are valuable lessons for readers who want to protect themselves from being swindled. In the wake of the Madoff scandal and the financial excesses that led to the recession of the past two years, this book will appeal to many readers angered by the financial services industry, the failures of the regulatory authorities, and rogue advisers. (Aug.)

Contents

CHAPTER ONE Financial Serial Killers....................3
CHAPTER TWO The Little Old Lady Who Invested with Buffett and Was Fleeced by Insurance Agents....................11
CHAPTER THREE The Financial Serial Killer: Charles Ponzi and the Criminal Pathology of White-Collar Thieves....................28
CHAPTER FOUR Bre-X Minerals: How to Make, and Detect, Fool's Gold....................49
INTERLUDE A The Investment Industry Speaks....................69
CHAPTER FIVE Stockbrokers, Greed, and Laziness....................74
CHAPTER SIX More Stockbrokers, Greed, and Laziness....................92
CHAPTER SEVEN Hedge Funds and Private Placements: Cachet and Exclusivity Can Cost You....................116
CHAPTER EIGHT Securities Regulators and Their Shortcomings: Are the Regulators Protecting You?....................143
INTERLUDE B The Investment Industry Speaks....................158
CHAPTER NINE What Is an Investment Adviser and Why Are So Many Running Ponzi Schemes?....................164
CHAPTER TEN Mortgage Fraud: How the Mortgage Industry and Mortgage Brokers Can Rip You Off and How Promises of Investment Riches Undermine the Safety of Your Home....................178
CHAPTER ELEVEN Affinity Fraud, or Holy Rolling, Religious Zeal, and the Art of the Steal....................189
INTERLUDE C The Investment Industry Speaks....................199
CHAPTER TWELVE Wall Street: It's a Game for Insiders-and Outsiders, Like You, Should Get Advice....................207
CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Consequence of White-Collar Crime and How It Can Destroy Lives and Rip Families Apart....................226
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Web Tools and Databases to Spot Trouble Before It Starts....................240
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Four Outlandish Tales of the Securities Business....................244
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Elder Abuse and Fraud....................254
INTERLUDE D The Investment Industry Speaks....................262
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Tilting at Windmills: How One Investor Refused to Give Up His Fight to Track Down His Financial Serial Killer....................268
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN The Psychology Behind Why We Fall for Scams....................277
EPILOGUE....................289
A LAUNDRY LIST OF THE CLASSIC WARNING SIGNS FOR INVESTORS....................293
NOTES....................299
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................306