Book
Anansi's gold : the man who looted the west, outfoxed Washington, and swindled the world / Yepoka Yeebo.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781635574739 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xiii, 378 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour) ; 25 cm
- Publisher: New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Blay-Miezah, John Ackah. Fraud > Ghana. Swindlers and swindling > Ghana > Biography. Ghana > History > 1957- |
| Genre: | Biographies. Personal narratives. True crime stories. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 364.16309667092 BlayM-Y | 31681010334316 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
Describes the true story of how a charismatic scammer, John Ackah Blay-Miezah, deceived thousands of people worldwide, including officials and lawyers, when he claimed to hold a billion-dollar trust fund linked to Ghanaâs former president, ousted by a junta. A first book. Illustrations. - Baker & Taylor
"When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas. Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece--if only you would 'invest' in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices--including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general--scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam 'one of the most fascinating--and lucrative--in modern history.' In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call 'history' writes itself into being, one lie at a time."-- - McMillan Palgrave
"Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR
Winner of the Jhalak Prize * Winner of the Plutarch Award for Biography * Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek, The Economist, TIME, Slate, and WIRED
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds.
When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas.
Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece--if only you would âinvestâ in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices-including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general--scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam âone of the most fascinating--and lucrative--in modern history.â
In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call âhistoryâ writes itself into being, one lie at a time. - McMillan Palgrave
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th centuryâs longest-running and most spectacular frauds.
