Now a #1 international bestseller; Billion Dollar Whale is ‘an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale’ (Publishers Weekly; starred review); revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history.

In 2009; a chubby; mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude — one that would come to symbolise the next great threat to the global financial system. Over a decade; Low; with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others; siphoned billions of dollars from an investment fund — right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. Low used the money to finance elections; purchase luxury real estate; throw champagne-drenched parties; and even to finance Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street.

By early 2019; with his yacht and private jet reportedly seized by authorities and facing criminal charges in Malaysia and in the United States; Low had become an international fugitive; even as the US Department of Justice continued its investigation.

Billion Dollar Whale has joined the ranks of Liar’s Poker; Den of Thieves; and Bad Blood as a classic harrowing parable of hubris and greed in the financial world.

A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND FORTUNE MAGAZINE. The epic story of how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest financial heists in history. In 2015, rumours began circulating that billions of dollars had been stolen from a Malaysian investment fund. The mastermind of the heist was twenty-seven-year-old Jho Low, a serial fabulist from an upper-middle-class Malaysian family, who had carefully built his reputation as a member of the jet-setting elite by arranging and financing elaborate parties for Wall Street bankers, celebrities, and even royalty. With the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, Low stole billions of dollars, right under the nose of global financial industry watchdogs. He used the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate, throw champagne-drenched parties, and bankroll Hollywood films like The Wolf of Wall Street. Billion Dollar Whale reveals how this silver-tongued con man, a modern Gatsby, emerged from obscurity to pull off one of the most audacious financial heists the world has ever seen, and how the financial industry let him. It is a classic harrowing parable of hubris and greed in the financial world.