12 Recommended Books Related to Financial Crime
Ian Messenger
Over the course of 2019 as I designed the Financial Crimes Prevention and Mitigation program for Seneca College, I read a lot of financial crime related books in order to ensure the program was full of “real world” examples and case studies. Building on the academic framework, the use of case studies throughout the course provide students with both a theoretical and practical knowledge of financial crime.
Such duality is also seen in the programs’ close alignment with the CFCS certification - offering students a Seneca College certificate and preparation for a leading industry certification.
Below are 12 of my favourite books of 2019. (Click on the images for redirection to Amazon)
1. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Covering the rise and fall of the firm Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup headed by Elizabeth Holmes
2. Secrecy World by Jake Bernstein
Exploring the shadow economy and how it evolved, drawing on millions of leaked documents from the files of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca―a trove now known as the Panama Papers―as well as other journalistic and government investigations
3. Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
The story of 1MDB and Jho Low
4. The Fix: How Bankers Lied, Cheated and Colluded to Rig the World’s Most Important Number by Liam Vaughan and Gavin Finch
The inside story of the Libor scandal
5. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
The Enron scandal brought down one of the most admired companies of the 1990s.
6. Fools’ Gold: The Making of Global Market Fraud by Brian Hutchinson
The biggest fraud ever perpetrated by a Canadian company, Bre-X
7. Full Service Bank: How BCCI Stole Billions Around the World by James Ring Adams and Douglas Frantz
Two veteran journalists go behind the scenes to reveal the intrigues and machinations that led to the biggest bank fraud in history, detailing BCCI's rise and fall, as well as the personalities involved
8. Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System-and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Chronicling the events of the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers
9. The Big Short by Michael Lewis
The build-up of the United States housing bubble during the 2000s.
10. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac
The story behind the rise of Uber
11. Out of the Shadows by Timea Nagy
The story of human trafficking survivor Timea Nagy’s experiences in Canada – the foundation of Project Protect
12. Total Risk: Nick Leeson and the Fall of Barings Bank by Judith Rawnsley
The story of rogue trader Nick Leeson whose actions led to the collapse of Barings Bank
The Financial Crimes Prevention and Mitigation course costs CAD $2500 + HST from Seneca College. Registered students can apply for CFCS membership and certification program from ACFCS for a heavily discounted rate of USD $500 (normally USD $1245)