Anansi's gold : the man who looted the west, outfoxed Washington, and swindled the world
(Book)
Author
Contributors
Bloomsbury (Firm), publisher.
Published
New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.
Physical Desc
xiii, 378 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
Appears on list
Status
Nonfiction - Adult Books
364.16 YEE
1 available
364.16 YEE
1 available
Description
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Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Nonfiction - Adult Books | 364.16 YEE | On Shelf |
More Details
Published
New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.
Format
Book
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-310, 313-354) and index.
Description
"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."--,Provided by publisher.
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