Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World
(Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Author:
Published:
Bloomsbury Publishing 2023
Format:
Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
"Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR
Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek, The Economist, TIME, Slate, and WIRED Best Book of the Year
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds.
When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas.
Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece—if only you would "invest" in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices-including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general—scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam "one of the most fascinating—and lucrative—in modern history."
In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call "history" writes itself into being, one lie at a time.
Winner of the Jhalak Prize * Winner of the Plutarch Award for Biography
Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek, The Economist, TIME, Slate, and WIRED Best Book of the Year
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds.
When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas.
Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece—if only you would "invest" in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices-including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general—scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam "one of the most fascinating—and lucrative—in modern history."
In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call "history" writes itself into being, one lie at a time.
Winner of the Jhalak Prize * Winner of the Plutarch Award for Biography
Formats
Kindle Book
Works on Kindles and devices with a Kindle app installed.
OverDrive Read
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Copies In Prospector
Loading Prospector Copies...
More Details
Street Date:
08/01/2023
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781635574753
ASIN:
B0BBSSXS45
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)
Yepoka Yeebo. (2023). Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Yepoka Yeebo. 2023. Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Yepoka Yeebo, Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.
MLA Citation (style guide)Yepoka Yeebo. Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.
Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
| Library | Owned | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Digital Collection | 1 | 1 |
| Broomfield Library | 0 | 0 |
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
affe0189-022b-36b3-5ef7-6b4b51b1364f
QR Code
API Extraction Dates
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Aug 10, 2023 21:12:50
Date Updated:
Aug 10, 2023 21:12:50
Last Metadata Check:
Feb 02, 2025 04:52:15
Last Metadata Change:
Jan 26, 2025 04:45:17
Last Availability Check:
Feb 02, 2025 04:52:16
Last Availability Change:
Nov 13, 2024 15:18:20
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Feb 04, 2025 01:37:20
OverDrive Product Record
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- formats
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9781635574753
- name: Adobe EPUB eBook
- id: ebook-epub-adobe
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B0BBSSXS45
- name: Kindle Book
- id: ebook-kindle
- identifiers:
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9781635574753
- name: OverDrive Read
- id: ebook-overdrive
- identifiers:
- otherFormatIdentifiers
- type: ISBN
- value: 9781635574739
- mediaType
- eBook
- primaryCreator
- role: Author
- name: Yepoka Yeebo
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- Anansi's Gold
- dateAdded
- 2023-08-11T05:10:00Z
- contentDetails
- href: https://link.overdrive.com?websiteID=114&titleID=9207208
- type: text/html
- account:
- name: Front Range Downloadable Library (CO)
- id: 1100
- sortTitle
- Anansis Gold The Man Who Looted the West Outfoxed Washington and Swindled the World
- crossRefId
- 9207208
- subtitle
- The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World
- id
- 00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989
- starRating
- 0
OverDrive MetaData
- isPublicDomain
- False
- formats
- fileName: AnansisGold_9207208
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 0
- identifiers:
- type: ASIN
- value: B0BBSSXS45
- name: Kindle Book
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-kindle
- onSaleDate: 8/1/2023
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=00043d5b-d537-400b-8bfe-642a4de93989&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- fileName: AnansisGold_9781635574753_9207208
- partCount: 0
- fileSize: 0
- identifiers:
- type: ISBN
- value: 9781635574753
- name: OverDrive Read
- isReadAlong: False
- id: ebook-overdrive
- onSaleDate: 8/1/2023
- samples:
- source: From the book
- formatType: ebook-overdrive
- url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=00043d5b-d537-400b-8bfe-642a4de93989&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
- keywords
- value: Political
- value: bank fraud
- value: Africa
- value: politics
- value: coup
- value: Historical
- value: political thriller
- value: Pennsylvania
- value: Nonfiction
- value: Ghana
- value: Postcolonialism
- value: International finance
- value: Philadelphia
- value: grifter
- value: International Politics
- value: greed
- value: con-man
- value: Thriller
- value: Scam
- value: hustler
- value: History
- value: con man
- value: corruption
- value: politician
- value: International
- value: thrilling
- value: heist
- value: Accra
- value: scammers
- value: corrupt politician
- value: finance books
- value: comprehensive history
- value: books about africa
- value: heist story
- value: coup d'état
- value: books about colonialism
- value: Ghanaian con artist
- value: global scam
- value: government coup
- value: charismatic thief
- value: con-artist history
- value: book about fraud
- value: books about con-men
- value: thrilling finance books
- value: wild histories
- value: scammer history
- creators
- role: Author
- fileAs: Yeebo, Yepoka
- bioText: Yepoka Yeebo's work has appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, the Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek and Quartz, among other publications. A graduate of Queen Mary, University of London and of Columbia University's School of Journalism, she divides her time between Accra, London and New York. Anansi's Gold is her first book.
- name: Yepoka Yeebo
- publishDate
- 2023-08-01T00:00:00Z
- isOwnedByCollections
- True
- title
- Anansi's Gold
- fullDescription
- "Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR
Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek, The Economist, TIME, Slate, and WIRED Best Book of the Year
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds.
When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas.
Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece—if only you would "invest" in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices-including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general—scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam "one of the most fascinating—and lucrative—in modern history."
In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call "history" writes itself into being, one lie at a time.
Winner of the Jhalak Prize * Winner of the Plutarch Award for Biography - popularity
- 1124
- links
- self:
- href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BvwAAAA25/products/00043d5b-d537-400b-8bfe-642a4de93989/metadata
- type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
- shareInLibby:
- href: https://link.overdrive.com/share?q=qH2MAEqDkIE
- type: text/HTML
- self:
- id
- 00043d5b-d537-400b-8bfe-642a4de93989
- starRating
- 3.1
- images
- cover:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG100.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- thumbnail:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG200.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover150Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG150.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover300Wide:
- href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/2183-1/{00043D5B-D537-400B-8BFE-642A4DE93989}IMG400.JPG
- type: image/jpeg
- cover:
- isPublicPerformanceAllowed
- False
- languages
- code: en
- name: English
- subjects
- value: Biography & Autobiography
- value: History
- value: True Crime
- value: Nonfiction
- publishDateText
- 08/01/2023
- otherFormatIdentifiers
- type: ISBN
- value: 9781635574739
- mediaType
- eBook
- shortDescription
- "Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR
Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek, The Economist, TIME, Slate, and WIRED Best Book of the Year
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds.
When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas.
Into this big lie stepped one of... - sortTitle
- Anansis Gold The Man Who Looted the West Outfoxed Washington and Swindled the World
- crossRefId
- 9207208
- classifications
- subtitle
- The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World
- publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- bisacCodes
- code: BIO024000
- description: Biography & Autobiography / Criminals & Outlaws
- code: HIS001050
- description: History / Africa / West
- code: TRU004000
- description: True Crime / Hoaxes & Deceptions