Secrecy World, Jake Bernstein
Secrecy World, Jake Bernstein
4 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
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Secrecy World
Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite

Author: Jake Bernstein

Narrator: Jake Bernstein

Unabridged: 10 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/21/2017


Synopsis

Secrecy World is the inspiration for the Major Motion Picture The Laundromat from Director Steven Soderbergh, Starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas

A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes us inside the world revealed by the Panama Papers, a landscape of illicit money, political corruption, and fraud on a global scale.

A hidden circulatory system flows beneath the surface of global finance, carrying trillions of dollars from drug trafficking, tax evasion, bribery, and other illegal enterprises. This network masks the identities of the individuals who benefit from these activities, aided by bankers, lawyers, and auditors who get paid to look the other way.

In Secrecy World, the Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter Jake Bernstein explores this shadow economy and how it evolved, drawing on millions of leaked documents from the files of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca—a trove now known as the Panama Papers—as well as other journalistic and government investigations. Bernstein shows how shell companies operate, how they allow the superwealthy and celebrities to escape taxes, and how they provide cover for illicit activities on a massive scale by crime bosses and corrupt politicians across the globe.

Bernstein traveled to the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and within the United States to uncover how these strands fit together—who is involved, how they operate, and the real-world impact. He recounts how Mossack Fonseca was exposed and what lies ahead for the corporations, banks, law firms, individuals, and governments that are implicated.

Secrecy World offers a disturbing and sobering view of how the world really works and raises critical questions about financial and legal institutions we may once have trusted.

About Jake Bernstein

Jake Bernstein was a senior reporter on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists team that broke the Panama Papers story. In 2017, the project won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Bernstein earned his first Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for National Reporting, for coverage of the financial crisis. He has written for The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Guardian, ProPublica, and Vice, and has appeared on the BBC, NBC, CNN, PBS, and NPR. He was the editor of The Texas Observer and is the coauthor of Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Constantine on April 21, 2024

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ Genre: Nonfiction Secrecy World, also known as The Laundromat, is a nonfiction book that delves deeply into the murky world of offshore finance, which was brought to light by the leak of the Panama Papers. The primary focus of this book is a law firm known as Mossack Fonseca, which is base......more

Goodreads review by Brian on May 08, 2018

(3.5) Mostly a recap of the most prominent clients of Mossack Fonseca When the book got closest to narrative was where it was best: the contact with John Doe, internal tension within the ICIJ, how to coordinate hundreds of journalists from around the world, make the data available and searchable for......more

Goodreads review by Eileen on November 23, 2017

This is a must read book. It reads like a suspense novel. If you want to learn how not to pay your taxes, this is a book for you. It seems that the rich from all over the world are doing this. Whether it's thru shell companies or art work. As one person put it, he was more worried about his wife fin......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on November 20, 2019

An extraordinary book. I am under few enough illusions about how capitalism has pillaged the planet and brought it to edge of ruin, BUT that said this book opens up the reader to organised financial corruption at a level and scale that is truly staggering. The book is very well structured and compre......more

Goodreads review by Cheryl on March 11, 2018

I am aware that money laundering goes on. When I think of this I instantly do think of Panama as the first place followed by the Caribbean next. Yet, I haven't thought to much about "business laundering". There is a huge "secret" network of corporations that manage the purchasing, selling, paperwork......more