Since before Texas was Texas, the league of land originally owned by Pelham Humphries has been surrounded in mystery, money, intrique and death. Inextricably linked to some of the most prominent corporate and private names on today's political scene, the tangled web of lies, half-truths and legal manuevering may have forever set a seal on the truth. Even so, the true heirs of Pelham Humphries continue their fight in small town law offices across the Southeast, trying to determine who owns Spindletop Oil Field?

A close presidential election in November could well come down to contested states or even districts--an election decided by vote theft? It could happen this year. Based on Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s investigative reporting for Rolling Stone and BBC television, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps might be the most important book published this year--one that could save the election. Billionaires & Ballot Bandits names the filthy-rich sugar-daddies who are super-funding the Super-PACs of both parties--billionaires with nicknames like "The Ice Man," "The Vulture" and, of course, The Brothers Koch. Told with Palast's no-holds-barred, reporter-on-the-beat style, the facts as he lays them out are staggering. What emerges in Billionaires & Ballot Bandits is the never-before-told-story of the epic battle being fought behind the scenes between the old money banking sector that still supports Obama, and the new hedge fund billionaires like Paul Singer who not only support Romney but also are among his key economic advisors. Although it has not been reported, Obama has shown some backbone in standing up to the financial excesses of the men behind Romney. Billionaires & Ballot Bandits exposes the previously unreported details on how operatives plan to use the hundreds of millions in Super-PAC money pouring into this election. We know the money is pouring in, but Palast shows us the convoluted ways the money will be used to suppress your vote. The story of the billionaires and why they want to buy an election is matched with the nine ways they can steal the election. His story of the sophisticated new trickery will pick up on Palast's giant New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

How to Steal A Lot of Money...Legally is a guide to investment scamming based on true events and insights gleaned from high-profile forensic investigations.

Sergey Pavlovich was a poor, talented boy from Belarus who made it big in the Russian-speaking hacking world of the early 2000s and earned millions of dollars from credit card fraud in just a few years. But he ended up in jail as a result of an FBI-led bust of what was dubbed the "largest and most complex identity theft in U.S. history." He spent his twenties in Belarus' brutal prison system. This is the tell-all story of Pavlovich's meteoric rise in the hacking world and his spectacular fall. It is packed with details about the shadowy cyber-crime world and the lucrative credit card fraud schemes and spamming operations he and his friends devised. Learn about some of the colorful personalities from the first flowering of Slavic cyber-crime in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and be horrified by Pavlovich's experience in prisons that have changed little since Soviet times. Most famously, Pavlovich was involved in a fraud ring run by notorious U.S. hacker Albert Gonzalez, who led a double life as an informer for American intelligence. The losses caused by Gonzalez and his friends were estimated to have exceeded $1 billion. This book, written by Pavlovich while in prison, has already been enjoyed by more than 50,000 Russian readers.

This sweeping study examines the law of intellectual property in Chinese civilization from imperial days to the present. It uses materials drawn from law, the arts and other fields as well as extensive interviews with Chinese and foreign officials, business people, lawyers, and perpetrators and victims of "piracy."

"In the grand tradition of Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires (2009)... an engaging look into a fascinating subculture of millions." —Booklist "Breezy...How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars ably if uncritically chronicles the short history of a young company catering to young users, with a young chief executive, and reveals, intentionally or not, the limitations that come with that combination." —Wall Street Journal The improbable and exhilarating story of the rise of Snapchat from a frat boy fantasy to a multi-billion dollar internet unicorn that has dramatically changed the way we communicate. In 2013 Evan Spiegel, the brash CEO of the social network Snapchat, and his co-founder Bobby Murphy stunned the press when they walked away from a three-billion-dollar offer from Facebook: how could an app teenagers use to text dirty photos dream of a higher valuation? Was this hubris, or genius? In How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars, tech journalist Billy Gallagher takes us inside the rise of one of Silicon Valley's hottest start-ups. Snapchat developed from a simple wish for disappearing pictures as Stanford junior Reggie Brown nursed regrets about photos he had sent. After an epic feud between best friends, Brown lost his stake in the company, while Spiegel has gone on to make a name for himself as a visionary—if ruthless—CEO worth billions, linked to celebrities like Taylor Swift and his wife, Miranda Kerr. A fellow Stanford undergrad and fraternity brother of the company’s founding trio, Gallagher has covered Snapchat from the start. He brings unique access to a company Bloomberg Business called “a cipher in the Silicon Valley technology community.” Gallagher offers insight into challenges Snapchat faces as it transitions from a playful app to one of the tech industry’s preeminent public companies. In the tradition of great business narratives, How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars offers the definitive account of a company whose goal is no less than to remake the future of entertainment.

A billion dollars in crisp, newly-printed bills - the sum transferred daily from the Bureau of Engraving and Print in the run-up to the launch of a new bill design. The BEP vault is the most secure in the world. No human being ever enters it: not even the President of the USA could gain access. Only pre-programmed robot vehicles pass through the 22-ton, 10-feet thick blast-proof door. The array of technology needed to unlock that door is utterly unparalleled. The transfer operation involves the most heavily- armed convoy ever seen, from M2 Bradleys on the ground to Apache attack helicopters and F-16 fighter jets overhead. Twelve squads of Marines provide close-order protection. Sullivan and her entirely unarmed team plan to steal the cash. All of it. Pritchard and Daniels are the Secret Service agents tasked with reviewing security arrangements to ensure that such a theft is utterly impossible. Only one team can succeed.