Two Wall Street Journal reporters dig into the fraudulent dealings of Abraaj, a Dubai-based private-equity firm whose deceptive leader, Arif Naqvi, duped Bill Gates, Western governments and others into investing hundreds of millions of dollars that were ultimately siphoned off to bankroll Naqvi's extravagant lifestyle.
This book tells the story brilliantly. Business books are usually boring, but this one is well paced and cleverly organised. It also draws some devastating conclusions about our over-financialised economies ... In a scorching epilogue the authors draw all the right conclusions ... This is tough stuff and this is a tough book that should contribute to much greater scepticism about the bloated financial system. But it probably won’t. Money talks, or rather as Bob Dylan sang, it swears.
Clark and Louch['s]...excellent book, which is more true crime than finance, describes in cinematic detail how Naqvi and his colleagues pumped up valuations, moved money between the company, its funds and their personal accounts, and lied about performance. It was a classic Ponzi scheme that needed to keep raising ever bigger sums to keep going ... raises uncomfortable questions for impact investing, which aims to deliver social or environmental benefits alongside returns for investors.
