If you have managed to go on holiday, or if you are staying at home this summer, why not catch up on some reading, podcasts and docuseries suggested by Fenergo, which works with compliance officers at 26 of the top 50 banks in the world? Enjoy!

Booklist

Billion Dollar Whale, by Tom Wright & Bradley Hope, 2018

Billion Dollar Whale is an international best-seller, exploring crime on a global scale and revealing the way in which a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history, using the money to finance elections, purchase luxury real estate and even finance Hollywood films.

Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power, by Bradley Hope & Justin Scheck, 2020, to be released shortly.

Blood and Oil is a captivating book about the world's financial underbelly, looking at the inner workings of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, the world's most powerful ruling clan, and how the struggle for succession produced the charismatic but ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The authors show us how his sudden rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of US-Saudi relations since 1945 - oil in exchange for military protection.

Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction, by David Enrich, 2020

A Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller, this book (according to its authors) exposes the most scandalous bank in the world, revealing its shadowy ties to Donald Trump, Putin's Russia and Nazi Germany. In the 1990s, a succession of ruthless executives made the fateful decision to chase Wall Street riches and set Deutsche Bank on an epic path of devastation. Its sins included manipulating markets, flouting international sanctions and washing money for Russian oligarchs.

Moneyland: Why Thieves And Crooks Now Rule The World And How To Take It Back, by Oliver Bullough, 2018

In this book an investigative journalist dives deeply into the corrupt activities of the world's kleptocrats. Learn how the institutions of Europe and the United States have become money-laundering operations, attacking the foundations of many of the world's most stable countries, and how heroic activists around the world are fighting back.

McMafia, by Misha Glenny, 2008

The inspiration behind the major BBC series, this hoary old classic is a journey through the 21st-Century world of international organised crime, from gun runners in Ukraine to money launderers in Dubai, by way of drug syndicates in Canada and cyber-criminals in Brazil.

Podcasts

The Dark Money Files by Graham Barrow and Ray Blake, 2019-20

A series of podcasts which explain to a non-technical audience how "dark money" enters the financial system and infects everything that it touches.

Swindled – A Concerned Citizen, 2018-20

Swindled is an American true-crime podcast written and hosted by an anonymous "concerned citizen" who has never revealed his identity. This scripted series explores the world of white-collar crime, political corruption and corporate greed.

Captivated Audience by Samantha Sheen and Marie Lundberg, 2020

This podcast was inspired by the evolving COVID-19 restrictions and the ways in which they have affected compliance people who are trying to fight financial crime. Reaching out to people all over the globe, hosts Samantha Sheen and Marie Lundberg look at how people are learning to work efficiently from home while still keeping up their efforts to detect, prevent and disrupt financial crime. The topics range from governance and know-your-customer or KYC efforts to transaction monitoring, cyber-security and accountability.

Merchants of Menace by Peter Butt, paperback 2015, podcast 2017

Documentary film maker and author Peter Butt discovered chilling new evidence about illicit operations at Nugan Hand Bank, which collapsed in 1980. In the process, he uncovered the new identity and whereabouts of former CIA operative Michael Hand, one of the world's most elusive corporate fugitives – showcased in this four-part true crime podcast series.

Documentaries/Series

The Patriot Act

Expertly chosen primary source documents, analytical commentary and comprehensive study resources are (according to the 'blurb') brought to bear in this docuseries, which looks at the US federal government's rationale for domestic surveillance and the political and public response to the unprecedented powers that it acquired through the controversial Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools to Restrict, Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act 2001.

Dirty Money

A Netflix Original Series that tells various stories that expose the greed, corruption and crime spreading through the global economy.

13th

An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and the way in which it reveals the nation's never-ending penchant for racial inequality. The title is a reference to the thirteenth amendment to the American Constitution which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as the punishment for a crime. Fenergo has presumably dropped this off-topic book onto its list for use by compliance officers who are facing jail sentences for not doing enough to mitigate the fraudulent misdeeds of their board directors.

The Business of Drugs

This is a American crime documentary web television miniseries which appeared this year. A former CIA analyst investigates the economics of six illicit substances and uses this to understand the origins and financial side of the business of drugs.