American Kleptocracy, Casey Michel
American Kleptocracy, Casey Michel
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American Kleptocracy
How the U.S. Created the World's Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History

Author: Casey Michel

Narrator: Joe Dwyer

Unabridged: 9 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/23/2021


Synopsis

A remarkable debut by one of America's premier young reporters on financial corruption, Casey Michel's American Kleptocracy offers an explosive investigation into how the United States of America built the largest illicit offshore finance system the world has ever known.

"An indefatigable young American journalist who has virtually cornered the international kleptocracy beat on the US end of the black aquifer."
—The Los Angeles Review of Books

For years, one country has acted as the greatest offshore haven in the world, attracting hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit finance tied directly to corrupt regimes, extremist networks, and the worst the world has to offer. But it hasn’t been the sand-splattered Caribbean islands, or even traditional financial secrecy havens like Switzerland or Panama, that have come to dominate the offshoring world. Instead, the country profiting the most also happens to be the one that still claims to be the moral leader of the free world, and the one that claims to be leading the fight against the crooked and the corrupt: the USA.

American Kleptocracy examines just how the United States’ implosion into a center of global offshoring took place: how states like Delaware and Nevada perfected the art of the anonymous shell company, and how post-9/11 reformers watched their success usher in a new flood of illicit finance directly into the U.S.; how African despots and post-Soviet oligarchs came to dominate American coastlines, American industries, and entire cities and small towns across the American Midwest; how Nazi-era lobbyists birthed an entire industry of spin-men whitewashing trans-national crooks and despots, and how dirty money has now begun infiltrating America's universities and think tanks and cultural centers; and how those on the front-line are trying to restore America's legacy of anti-corruption leadership—and finally end this reign of American kleptocracy.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

About Casey Michel

Casey Michel is an author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program with the Human Rights Foundation. He is the author of American Kleptocracy, named by The Economist as one of the "best books to read to understand financial crime." His writing on offshoring, foreign lobbying, authoritarianism, and illicit wealth has appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and he has appeared on NPR, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, among other stations. He has also testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the links between illicit financial networks and national security. He received his Master’s degree in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in northern Kazakhstan. Foreign Agents is his second book.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ginger on July 01, 2021

This book details how extremely rich oligarchs from Africa, eastern Europe, or the middle east, often launder their ill-gotten gains through American institutions. Anyone familiar with TV series such as Ozark or Billions will be familiar with such schemes. Unfortunately these are not fiction, but ar......more

Goodreads review by Michael on August 15, 2021

American Kleptocracy by Casey Michel is an interesting and timely book describing who and how money is moved about globally. What is frustrating and disturbing to learn is although most of the money is not stolen in the US, much of it is transferred into the US where it goes from dirty to clean mone......more

Goodreads review by Maxine on November 23, 2021

When people think of off-shore money havens, they usually think of places like the Caymans. But, in fact, as author Casey Michel shows in his book, American Kleptocracy, the US has become one of the world’s biggest and most popular places for off-shore tax havens and money laundering. In this well-wr......more

Goodreads review by Patricia on November 01, 2021

How the U.S. Created the WORLD’S GREATEST MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME in HISTORY Casey Michel shows us the world of illicit offshore money schemes. American Kleptocracy looks at how the United States morphed into the center of global money offshoring. Our country has been at the center of this illicit game......more

Goodreads review by Annie on May 28, 2022

I KNEW IT!!! This is what happens when you mix money and politics.......more


Quotes

"Casey Michel cuts through the spin, to reveal the inner workings of the American economy. His writing has shown again and again the subterfuges and secrecy at the heart of how money moves through the financial system, and does it with panache, wit, and a blessed aversion to jargon. I always read his work, and can't wait to read this one."
—Oliver Bullough, author of the international bestseller Moneyland: The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World

"Casey is the foremost journalistic voice in the fight against kleptocracy. No other individual is so consistently on the case and interested in both the actors and the possible policy responses. His knowledge of the existential danger posed by kleptocracy is bar none, and we rely on his work like no one else to inform policy."
—Paul Massaro, Congressional Policy Advisor, U.S. Helsinki Commission

"An indefatigable young American journalist who has virtually cornered the international kleptocracy beat on the US end of the black aquifer."
The Los Angeles Review of Books