The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Maths Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

by David Enrich

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Book cover for The Spider Network

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In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Libor-the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide-was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated administrators, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it fractions of a percent to suit their trading portfolios. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a wild alliance that included a prickly French trader nicknamed "Gollum"; the broker "Abbo," who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a nervous Kazakh chicken farmer known as "Derka Derka"; a broker known as "Village" (short for "Village Idiot") who racked up huge expense account bills; an executive called "Clumpy" because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed "Big Nose" who had once been a semi-professional boxer. This group generated incredible riches -until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.
With exclusive access to key characters and evidence, The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but also a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout.
  • ISBN10 0753557495
  • ISBN13 9780753557495
  • Publish Date 1 January 1999
  • Publish Status Cancelled
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Ebury Publishing
  • Imprint W H Allen
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 352
  • Language English