Kleptopia cover art

Kleptopia

How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World

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Kleptopia

By: Tom Burgis
Narrated by: Tom Burgis
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About this listen

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘If you think the UK isn't corrupt, you haven't looked hard enough … This terrifying book follows a global current of dirty money, and the murders and kidnappings required to sustain it’ GEORGE MONBIOT, GUARDIAN AN ECONOMIST AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

‘When you pick this book up, you won’t be able to put it down’ MISHA GLENNY, author of MCMAFIA

‘Gripping, disturbing and deeply reported’ BEN RHODES, bestselling author of THE WORLD AS IT IS

In this real-life thriller packed with jaw-dropping revelations, award-winning investigative journalist Tom Burgis reveals a terrifying global web of kleptocracy and corruption.

Kleptopia follows the dirty money that is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators, enriching oligarchs and poisoning democracies. From the Kremlin to Beijing, Harare to Riyadh, London to the Trump White House, it shows how the thieves are uniting – and the terrible human cost.

A body in a burned-out Audi. Workers riddled with bullets in the Kazakh desert. A rigged election in Zimbabwe. A British banker silenced and humiliated for trying to expose the truth about the City of London – the world’s piggy bank for blood money.

Riveting, horrifying and written like fiction, this book shows that while we are looking the other way, all that we hold most dear is being stolen.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Tom Burgis (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Corruption & Misconduct Organized Crime Politics & Government True Crime Russia Africa Crime Exciting Scary Thought-Provoking Inspiring Imperialism Banking China

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Critic reviews

"When you pick this book up, you won’t be able to put it down." (Misha Glenny, author of McMafia)

"A powerful, appalling, and stunningly reported exposé.... It reads like fiction, but unfortunately is all too true." (Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money)

"Read Kleptopia now." (Roberto Saviano, best-selling author of Gomorrah)

All stars
Most relevant  
Investigative journalism at its best, coupled with brilliant storytelling. One of the most interesting and engaging books I've ever read.

Brilliant account of global corruption

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What a great piece of work, courageous, coherent, excoriating, we should all look forward to a successful conclusion to this unfinished dirty business

Переведите, пожалуйста, на русский язык!

Nigel would be proud

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Good book that is well read by the author. Subject matter is ultimately soul destroying.

We're all donee for.

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Well researched. A lot of detail. But also a well told story.
will check out various characters mentioned.

not shocking unfortunately

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OMG I have never thought that at 87 I would read a book about money but although I had heard about money laundering I did not know the details. I was riveted and appalled, not surprise but disgusted. Horrible, greedy, selfish, thieving, immoral, people that permeate our government and the nation; ours and many others. Thank you Mr Burgis. Well written and well read. Depressing though it is I was ribotes and glad to know more.

Messy money

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A very comprehensive and thorough book. The author clearly did a lot of research. The ending brought it all together!

Amazing, ending worth the wait

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listened twice as to back.
Confirms a lot about what Ip expected about Trump, the City, The Conservative party and the establishment behind it, then peels back another layer. I hope a lot more is published about this and I the popular media.

Crucial.

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So as the ending comments say, the solution is honesty as a weapon against all this corruption. But how do we incentivise people to take risks against these powers? it seems they tend to only kill people who are based in/come from the corrupt regimes. They do seem to fear the wrath of the western powers whose blessing of legitimacy they so crave.
But this is a generation (as in ours in the UK) we haven't known war. We don't know what's at stake if we let the ball slip, and don't keep moving our society forward. We've made great progress in many things. We have to take note of the erosion of truth and honesty as a meaningful quality and attribute to strive for.

Excellent and rather disconcerting

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Horrifying, but brilliant. Well written with a fantastic turn of phrase. A terrifying story that's puts the current crisis in the Ukraine in context.

Truth stranger than fiction

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...some of this we knew, but Burgis pulls the whole stinking carcass into full view. Superbly knitted together with a thread of naivety and eccentric innocence set against the brutal reality of how democracy is now just a cover story for kleptocracy. Brilliantly depressing.

Dear God

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