Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

The man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood? I would say he's the man who fooled the whole universe too, LOL.

This is a book that every Malaysian are so familiar with.... after all, we had been exposed to the details of 1MDB scandal since many years ago.  Being a Malaysian, I thought I know enough on the whole scandal. However, this book opened my eyes to more details that I wish to know. Credit must be given to the authors. You guys have put on hard work in collecting all the information. Well done!

I spend almost a month to finish this book. The story is so fascinating that I just cannot put it down. Perhaps this is due to the facts that the said scandal happened in Malaysia. If it happened elsewhere, I may not be so keen to explore further. The story begins in Penang and crosses the globe through Abu Dhabi, New York, Vegas towards Bangkok and China, where the mighty Low could be hiding right now. I am so amazed by the details analysis by WSJ reporters. Imagine, the brand of champagne was mentioned even though I do not give a damn on what they drank, haha! Further to this, tons of interview with dozens of peoples involved are presented in this book. So, it strengthen the facts that this scandal really happened such a way even though many will find it hard to believe. So, to sum it up, the authors did their part and it is a great effort in producing this book.

The flaw side... First of all, I thought many details on financial fraud were not explained. The whole "trick" was more like a story telling. Being in the finance industry myself, I found it hard to explain on the due diligence side. Well, some might argue that there are always some loopholes behind the rules and regulation. However, the facts that many mighty banks were involved and the said banks are all being "deceived" easily? Hard to believe... Secondly, this story is actually a super complex story to follow. We in Malaysia are exposed to the details almost daily. So, for us to understand the whole story is not difficult. However, a friend of mine in Australia found it messy. According to him, he lost interest after flipping for few chapters. So, the structure of this book may have some problems for those who are not familiar with the whole scandal.

For a full rating of 10, I am going to rate this book at 8. Well, there are some unanswered doubts especially on the tricky banking side. However, I do get more details as what I wish for. There are rumors there is a movie coming up on this book. Wow... really looking forward to see the movie!