It was hailed as the biggest gold discovery this century, worth more than u15 billion, but it turned out to be a big mining scandal. This is an account of how, in 1995, Bre-X Minerals, a small Canadian mining company, shot to world fame and fortune after announcing the discovery of 71 million ounces of gold at the Busang site, on the island of Borneo, Indonesia. The value of Bre-X shares soared from $5 to $192.50 within minutes of listing in Toronto in 1996."

For 2 years, BRE-X was the darling of the world's stock markets. Millionaires were created over night; until the scam was uncovered.

An entertaining, deeply informative explanation of how high-level financial crimes work, written by an industry insider who’s an expert in the field. The way most white-collar crime works is by manipulating institutional psychology. That means creating something that looks as much as possible like a normal set of transactions. The drama comes later, when it all unwinds. Financial crime seems horribly complicated, but there are only so many ways you can con someone out of what’s theirs. In Lying for Money, veteran regulatory economist and market analyst Dan Davies tells the story of fraud through a genealogy of financial malfeasance, including: the Great Salad Oil swindle, the Pigeon King International fraud, the fictional British colony of Poyais in South America, the Boston Ladies’ Deposit Company, the Portuguese Banknote Affair, Theranos, and the Bre-X scam. Davies brings new insights into these schemes and shows how all frauds, current and historical, belong to one of four categories (“long firm,” counterfeiting, control fraud, and market crimes) and operate on the same basic principles. The only elements that change are the victims, the scammers, and the terminology. Davies has years of experience picking the bones out of some of the most famous frauds of the modern age. Now he reveals the big picture that emerges from their labyrinths of deceit and explains how fraud has shaped the entire development of the modern world economy.

Lessons can be learned from major fraud cases. Whether the victim is a company, public agency, nonprofit, foundation, or charity, there is a high likelihood that many of these frauds could have been prevented or detected sooner if early Red Flag warning signs had been identified and acted upon. Fraud Prevention and Detection: Warning Signs and the

By using true tales of thieves, swindlers, and fraudsters at work, Financial Serial Killers illustrates how these perpetrators get their hooks into investors' wallets, savings accounts, and portfolios—and never let go. The worst financial crisis since the great depression revealed that thousands of mom and pop investors had lost millions to so-called Mini-Madoffs. They are the thieves and conmen who had used phony financial acumen to steal investors' money, wipe out savings, and damage lives. Financial Serial Killers reveals the cons—from the grand to picayune—advisers cultivate with their victims—relationships that are essential to the fraud. Take the story of Lillian, the little old lady who invested with Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. After her husband died, she thought her family's treasure of $24 million in stock controlled by Buffett was safe. It was—until a family relative introduced the eighty-nine-year-old grandmother to a pair of unscrupulous insurance agents who convinced her to reinvest her savings in life insurance—decimating her nest egg while padding the agents' pockets. Lillian's story, as well as other accounts of deceit and fraud are the core of Financial Serial Killers. Readers will learn how to better protect their family's wealth and savings after reading this book.

Based on events surrounding the infamous, billion-dollar BRE-X gold fraud, and the determined few who recklessly destroyed so many lives with their all-consuming quest for gold, in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. When Canadian miner Borneo Gold Corporation announces the discovery of gold reserves in excess of twenty million ounces, pundits drive the worthless stock to giddying heights as the rich and powerful in three countries move to secure control over the deposit. Dayak tribes are forced off traditional lands, precipitating ethnic blood feuds and a return to headhunting practices as exploration practices destroy pristine forests and pollute the environment. Indonesian Gold brings a depth of description and colour to the archipelago's ethnic tribes as they resist the flood of Moslem migrants from the poorer, Indonesian islands, and reveals the extent of devastation visited upon indigenous peoples by multinational, mining companies.