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Fortune's Spear: A Forgotten Story of Genius, Fraud, and Finance in the Roaring Twenties

A richly detailed Edwardian true crime story of an extraordinary fraud, full of parallels to contemporary financial upheavals, from Bernie Madoff to the 2008 global financial crash.Gerard Lee Bevan was the black sheep of one of London's most respectable banking families. A high-living womanizer and upper-class shyster of almost pantomime proportions, he exploited a glittering range of social connections. After a long run of success in City dealings he perpetrated a massive fraud which ruined both the City Equitable Fire Insurance Company and his stockbroking firm, Ellis & Co. He fled the country and was eventually arrested, tried, and jailed. Based on new research, Martin Vander Weyer tells the story of a fraud of extraordinary proportions, perpetrated by an aristocratic Englishman from a seemingly impeccable background. Exploring exactly how Bevan managed it, he reconstructs in rich Edwardian detail the environment and characters of the day, as well as Bevan's desperate attempt at disguise and flight across Europe. With resonances in today's financial world, from the 2008 crash to the likes of fraudsters such as Bernard Madoff, this compelling true crime tale offers a fascinating glimpse into a bygone financial world.Read more

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