Summary of Tom Burgis's Kleptopia

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 Nigel Wilkins was a banker who had never been a banker. He was too shy to shoot looks of granite, but behind it lay not only the stifled arrogance of the cleverest man, but also an unbearable awkwardness. He loved economics, the art of telling money’s stories.

#2 Nigel was a free man because he had made plenty of money and had little to spend it on. He preferred his old radio and the antediluvian three-piece suite his friend had given him. He had been a quiet child, but with adulthood came a distrust of authority that could approach contempt.

#3 Nigel was a compliance officer at a Swiss bank, and he was excited about his new job. He thought he could force the bank to comply with regulations. His eagerness did not put Charlotte at ease. She warned him not to go to BSI. But he went anyway, and for a while, no ill came of it.

#4 Nigel’s father had always said that anyone who did wrong would get what was coming to them. Nigel thought that principle needed some enforcing. He had stumbled upon the world’s biggest fraud, and there was something else, something deeper, connected to what was happening to money.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669381396

IRB Media

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Insights on Tom Burgis's Kleptopia

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Nigel Wilkins was a banker who had never been a banker. He was too shy to shoot looks of granite, but behind it lay not only the stifled arrogance of the cleverest man, but also an unbearable awkwardness. He loved economics, the art of telling money’s stories.

#2

Nigel was a free man because he had made plenty of money and had little to spend it on. He preferred his old radio and the antediluvian three-piece suite his friend had given him. He had been a quiet child, but with adulthood came a distrust of authority that could approach contempt.

#3

Nigel was a compliance officer at a Swiss bank, and he was excited about his new job. He thought he could force the bank to comply with regulations. His eagerness did not put Charlotte at ease. She warned him not to go to BSI. But he went anyway, and for a while, no ill came of it.

#4

Nigel’s father had always said that anyone who did wrong would get what was coming to them. Nigel thought that principle needed some enforcing. He had stumbled upon the world’s biggest fraud, and there was something else, something deeper, connected to what was happening to money.

#5

In 2008, while it was still possible to pretend the crisis wasn’t happening, a billionaire named Alexander Machkevitch made his way to the Banqueting House on Whitehall. He wanted money because he felt the power it would bring him.

#6

The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, was a former Communist Party boss who had gained and kept his position by being loyal to the state. He demanded and received a share of the country’s booty commensurate with his position as father of the nation.

#7

The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, gave and took away. He had given three grandchildren to sugar daddy Patokh Chodiev, one of the country’s oligarchs. But when Chodiev tried to demand democratic reforms, Nazarbayev took away his businesses and sent him to a prison camp.

#8

The Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, led by Sasha, his partners, and their hundreds of guests, had sold a share of the company to the public. The money managers of endowments and pension funds would now as a matter of course invest in this formidable corporation.

#9

The London Stock Exchange allowed the Trio, the Kazakh state, and another oligarch who together owned ENRC to place just 18 percent of the company’s shares on the market, sacrificing a minimal portion of control to attain the sanctity of a London listing.

#10

The financial crisis of 2008 demonstrated the kleptocratic nature of the world's governments. The unctuousness of the City of London's welcome