In 2011, Ross Ulbricht — a 26 year old with very strong libertarian views launched the “Silk Road”. An online market place where you could buy literally anything (drugs, passports, guns, poisons, and even organs).
It started out as a place where teenagers could buy weed, mushrooms and other psychedelics, but quickly escalated to a $1.2 Billion enterprise that fostered the largest drug trade in recent history. Ulbricht had intensions to create a user friendly place to buy and sell drugs, but ultimately gets caught up in all of the power that comes with running a billion dollar Silicon Valley Unicorn.
Nick Bilton gives a very detailed account of how the Silk Road was formed, the politics of the two-year man hunt, and how it all came crashing down. A mix between Catch Me If You Can and American Gangster, this is a must read that shows us what the internet and the dark web has done for todays drug trade.
In 2014 Elizabeth Holmes had a life changing idea that stemmed from her fear of needles. She wanted to create a technology that allowed you to run 300+ blood tests on the simple prick of your finger. Throughout her career she idolized Steve Jobs and after founding Theranos she was on pace to cement herself alongside Jobs in the history books when her company became one of the highest valued unicorns in Silicon Valley.
The only problem with her dream to becoming the next Steve Jobs, was unlike the Iphone, her technology didn’t work…
John Carreyrou describes how it is possible to raise over $9+ billion dollars gain influence with high level government officials, and have a net worth of $4 billion while inventing a technology that was part of Holmes alternate reality. Once you pick this book up, it is hard to set down and truly unbelievable at times.
In 2009 Jho Low, a young Malaysian man attended Wharton School of Business and had the dream to become one of the most powerful influencers in todays modern world. It started out as his desire to finance extravagant parties, but quickly ballooned into one of the greatest financial frauds in history.
He masterminded and executed on a plan to syphon billions of dollars from the Malaysian government and used the funds to throw parties, buy yachts, penthouses and gain influence with A-list celebrities including Leonardo Decaprio. The most ironic of all, he used the funds to start a film company that eventually financed the Wolf of Wall Street.
Tom Wright and Bradley Hope breakdown how he was able to fool the Malaysian Government, Goldman Sachs, The Big 4 Accounting firms, the U.S. Government and countless others. This is a must read that gives us a small picture of how even in 2019, financial scandals of this size can go unnoticed.
Thank you for the book recommendations, Alec. American Kingpin is next on my reading list.