Billion dollar whale : the man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the world / Tom Wright and Bradley Hope.

Part I. The invention of Jho Low. Fake photos ; Asian Great Gatsby ; Win tons of money ; We're going to need a bigger van ; A nice toy ; Doctor Leissner, I presume ; Saudi "royalty" (the first heist) ; Hitting a goldmine ; "I feel the earth move" -- Part II. Overnight billionaire. An evening with the playmates ; Raining Cristal ; How to spend a billion ; Where's our money? ; Roll the presses ; Welcome to New York ; Shitty, junk products ; My good friend, Leo ; Two-million-euro bottle parade ; "Keep your nonsense to yourself" ; Belfort smells a scam ; Bitter severance ; Penthouse with a view ; Switzerland of the East ; Brazen sky ; Goldman and the sheikh (the second heist) ; Bilking the state -- Part III. Empire. Making Busta his bitch ; All the wealth in the world ; Mystique of the orient ; "681 American pies" (the third heist) ; Art no one can see ; Jewelers and bankers ; Bona fide business ; 140 gigabytes ; Leo's Wall Street indictment ; The Oval Office ; Size matters ; Losing control -- Part IV. Bonfire of secrets. "No cash. No deal." ; Generous Jho ; Sacks of money ; The exposé ; Buttocks in a g-string ; Strongman Najib -- Part V. The captain's resolve. Prosecutor in an oil drum ; Special Agent Bill McMurry -- Partying on the run ; China connection ; Glass half full ; White-collar crime ; King Khadem falls.

Two Pulitzer-finalist Wall Street Journal reporters document the true story of how a young social climber orchestrated one of history's biggest financial heists, exposing the secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood and politics. 75,000 first printing.

"What does it take to steal $5 billion? In 2009, with the dust yet to settle on the financial crisis, a mild-mannered Wharton grad set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. His name is Jho Low, a man whose behavior was so preposterous he might seem made up. If Jho Low appeared shy on the surface, behind the scenes he was a big-talking, social-climbing huckster. Barely out of college, Low persuaded the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, to create an investment fund, known as 1MDB. Directing it from the shadows, Low raised more than $10 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others, and over the next half decade siphoned off billions--money used to finance elections; to purchase luxury real estate; to produce Hollywood films, including The Wolf of Wall Street; and to throw champagne-drenched parties around the world. Low's largesse put him at the center of a world that included celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx, supermodels like Miranda Kerr, and even a major donor to President Obama. More staggering still, no one seemed to notice--not the global banks, who seemingly turned a blind eye to shady transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars, nor the official financial-system watchdogs. Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters, have broken dozens of stories about the 1MDB affair. Now, for the first time, they reveal the complete inside story of one of the biggest financial heists in history. Billion Dollar Whale will join the ranks of Liar's Poker and Den of Thieves as a classic, harrowing parable of the financial world, hubris, and greed."--Jacket.

In 2009 a mild-mannered Wharton grad set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude. His name is Jho Low, and his behavior was so preposterous he might seem made up. Low persuaded the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, to create an investment fund, known as 1MDB. Directing it from the shadows, Low raised more than $10 billion while siphoning off billions to finance elections; to purchase luxury real estate; to produce Hollywood films; throwing parties around the world. And no one seemed to notice the shady transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars. -- adapted from jacket.