The Chickenshit Club, Jesse Eisinger
The Chickenshit Club, Jesse Eisinger
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

The Chickenshit Club
Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute ExecutivesWhite Collar Criminals

Author: Jesse Eisinger

Narrator: Jonathan Todd Ross

Unabridged: 13 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2017


Synopsis

Winner of the 2018 Excellence in Financial Journalism Award

From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jesse Eisinger, “a fast moving, fly-on-the-wall, disheartening look at the deterioration of the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission…It is a book of superheroes” (San Francisco Review of Books).

Why were no bankers put in prison after the financial crisis of 2008? Why do CEOs seem to commit wrongdoing with impunity? The problem goes beyond banks deemed “Too Big to Fail” to almost every large corporation in America—to pharmaceutical companies and auto manufacturers and beyond. The Chickenshit Club—an inside reference to prosecutors too scared of failure and too daunted by legal impediments to do their jobs—explains why in “an absorbing financial history, a monumental work of journalism…a first-rate study of the federal bureaucracy” (Bloomberg Businessweek).

Jesse Eisinger begins the story in the 1970s, when the government pioneered the notion that top corporate executives, not just seedy crooks, could commit heinous crimes and go to prison. He brings us to trading desks on Wall Street, to corporate boardrooms and the offices of prosecutors and FBI agents. These revealing looks provide context for the evolution of the Justice Department’s approach to pursuing corporate criminals through the early 2000s and into the Justice Department of today, including the prosecutorial fiascos, corporate lobbying, trial losses, and culture shifts that have stripped the government of the will and ability to prosecute top corporate executives.

“Brave and elegant…a fearless reporter…Eisinger’s important and profound book takes no prisoners” (The Washington Post). Exposing one of the most important scandals of our time, The Chickenshit Club provides a clear, detailed explanation as to how our Justice Department has come to avoid, bungle, and mismanage the fight to bring these alleged criminals to justice. “This book is a wakeup call…a chilling read, and a needed one” (NPR.org).

About Jesse Eisinger

Jesse Eisinger is a Pulitzer Prize–winning senior reporter at ProPublica. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. Previously, he was the Wall Street Editor of Conde Nast Portfolio and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, covering markets and finance. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their daughters.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Trish on June 26, 2018

Eisinger explores “Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives” in this book that introduces us to the heyday of criminal prosecutions for white collar crime to its nadir today. “The Department of Justice is a loose federation of ninety-four offices around the country, each a realm unt......more

Goodreads review by Athan on August 13, 2017

It’s been said, and I for one tend to agree, that in November 2016 the American public punished the Democrats for not having successfully (or otherwise) prosecuted any senior Wall Street executives during the eight years following the crash 2008. I was hoping that this book was the one that would he......more

Goodreads review by Nick on June 21, 2017

If you hate what Wall Street has done to America and you want to understand how it happened (even if your eyes glaze over at the first mention of "securities" or "derivatives"), you will love this book. Eisinger cuts through the financial jargon and bureaucrat-speak to tell a story with rich charact......more

Goodreads review by Kressel on October 30, 2017

Another reader compared this book to THE BIG SHORT, and it’s fitting both in style and in content. Both books tell the personal stories of people involved with highly complex financial crimes to help clarify that complexity to the layperson. (To be honest, Michael Lewis did a better job of it.) More......more

Goodreads review by David on May 31, 2017

A fascinating narrative that begins with how US law enforcement used to get white collar crime right - not even two decades ago - and how it all fell apart. Unfavorable rulings and extreme timidity have created a special class of citizenship for corporations and their executives, a class that need n......more