Black edge : inside information, dirty money, and the quest to bring down the most wanted man on Wall Street / Sheelah Kolhatkar.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Random House, [2017]Copyright date: ©2017Edition: First editionDescription: xx, 344 pages ; 25 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780812995800
- 0812995805
- 364.16/8092 23
- HG4930 .K65 2017
- BUS027000 | BUS036000
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Bedford Public Library Non-Fiction | Non-Fiction | 364.168 KOL | Available | 32500001719120 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "An essential expos#65533; of our times--a work that reveals the deep rot in our financial system . . . Everyone should read this book."--David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR-- The New York Times and The Economist * Finalist for the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
The hedge fund industry changed Wall Street. Its pioneers didn't lay railroads, build factories, or invent new technologies. Rather, they made their billions through financial speculation, by placing bets in the market that turned out to be right more often than not. In hedge fund circles, Steven A. Cohen was revered as one of the greatest traders who ever lived. But that image was shattered when his fund, SAC Capital, became the target of a seven-year government investigation. Prosecutors labeled SAC a "magnet for market cheaters" whose culture encouraged the relentless pursuit of "edge"--and even "black edge," which is inside information--and the firm was ultimately indicted and pleaded guilty to charges related to a vast insider trading scheme. Cohen, himself, however, was never charged. Black Edge is a riveting legal thriller that raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of high finance and how they have reshaped the economy.
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
"A modern version of Moby-Dick, with wiretaps rather than harpoons." --Jennifer Senior, The New York Times
"If you liked James B. Stewart's Den of Thieves, Sheelah Kolhatkar's thrilling Black Edge should be next on your reading list." -- The Wall Street Journal
"Excellent." --The Economist
"A true-life thriller with Shakespearian stakes . . . Her chilling account of a blighted industry is as mesmerizing as a human story as it is as a financial one." -- Fortune
"A tour de force of groundbreaking reporting and brilliant storytelling." --Jeffrey Toobin, New York Times bestselling author of American Heiress
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-336) and index.
Money, money, money -- What Stevie wants, Stevie gets -- Murderers' Row -- It's like gambling at Rick's -- Edgy, proprietary information -- Conflict of interest -- Stuff that legends are made of -- The informant -- The death of kings -- Occam's razor -- Undefeatable -- The whale -- Karma -- The life raft -- Justice -- Judgment.
"Steven A. Cohen is a Wall Street legend. Born into a middle class family in a decidedly upper class suburb on Long Island, he was unpopular in high school and unlucky with girls. Then he went off to Wharton, and in 1992 launched the hedge fund SAC Capital, which grew into a $15 billion empire. He cultivated an air of mystery and reclusiveness -- at one point, owned the copyright to almost every picture taken of him -- and also of extreme excess, building a 35,000 square foot house in Greenwich, flying to work by helicopter, and amassing one of the largest private art collections in the world. But on Wall Street, he was revered as a genius: one of the greatest traders who ever lived. That public image was shattered when SAC Capital became the target of a sprawling, seven-year criminal and SEC investigation, the largest in Wall Street history, led by an undermanned but determined group of government agents, prosecutors, and investigators. Experts in finding and using "black edge" (inside information), SAC Capital was ultimately fined nearly $2 billion -- the largest penalty in history -- and shut down. But as Sheelah Kolhatkar shows, Steven Cohen was never actually put out of business. He was allowed to keep trading his own money (in 2015, he made $350 million), and can start a new hedge fund in only a few years. Though eight SAC employees were convicted or pleaded guilty to insider trading, Cohen himself walked away a free man. Black Edge is a riveting, true-life thriller that raises an urgent and troubling question: Are Wall Street titans like Steven Cohen above the law?"-- Provided by publisher.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Kolhatkar's (staff writer, The New Yorker) book provides the most details about the Securities and Exchange Commision and FBI investigations into insider trading in New York in the past ten years, coming after Charles Gasparino's Circle of Friends, Anita Raghavan's The Billionaire's Apprentice, and the PBS Frontline documentary To Catch a Trader. The "black edge" of the title refers to insider information used by hedge fund traders to cheat. The subject of this book is Steven A. Cohen's former firm, SAC Capital, which pled guilty in 2013 to criminal insider trading and paid a $1.2 billion settlement. Cohen avoided personal liability. Organized chronologically, this volume starts with the FBI -investigation into convicted billionaire Raj Rajaratnam. It ends in 2015 with Cohen emerging unscathed and ready to return to trading other people's money. Unlike Circle of Friends, which covers the same ground, this book benefits from Kolhatkar's access to the post-2013 criminal trials and government investigators. She notes wryly that the attorneys who pursued Cohen have moved into representing the industry, which is now more complex and successful than before. -VERDICT Well-written, with pointed characterizations of the ambitious players and their motives, this book is highly recommended for readers interested in finance, crime, and politics. [See Prepub Alert, 8/26/16.]-Harry Charles, St. Louis © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Booklist Review
In 2013, the Wall Street hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to insider trading the purchase or sales of stocks using nonpublic information and cut a deal with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to pay $1.8 billion in penalties. New Yorker staff writer and former hedge-fund analyst Kolhatkar ably traces the roots of the case, one of the largest of its kind in U.S. history. She follows the fascinating story of virtuoso trader and SAC Capital founder Steven A. Cohen, whose talent for making money made him one of the richest men in America. Possibly the most gripping portion of this part business, part legal drama is Kolhatkar's coverage of the case against Cohen's employee Mat Martoma, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in SAC's insider trading. With close perspectives from individuals working for the FBI and SEC and a flowing, narrative style, Kolhatkar offers an utterly absorbing look at how Cohen pushed his traders to the limit that black edge and how he mostly insulated himself from the potential ramifications. This fast-paced, true-life thriller will leave readers enraptured and troubled.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2017 BooklistAuthor notes provided by Syndetics
Sheelah Kolhatkar is a former hedge fund analyst. Currently she is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Her work has appeared in other publications including Bloomberg Businessweek, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. She is a commentator on business and economics for several NPR, PBS and other networks. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Black Edge: The Inside Story of the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street.(Bowker Author Biography)