Financial Serial Killers: Inside the World of Wall Street Money Hustlers, Swindlers, and Con Men

by Tom Ajamie, Bruce Kelly

By using true tales of thieves, swindlers, and fraudsters at work, Financial Serial Killers illustrates how these perpetrators get their hooks into investors' wallets, savings accounts, and portfolios—and never let go. The worst financial crisis since the great depression revealed that thousands of mom and pop investors had lost millions to so-called Mini-Madoffs. They are the thieves and conmen who had used phony financial acumen to steal investors' money, wipe out savings, and damage lives.

Financial Serial Killers reveals the cons—from the grand to picayune—advisers cultivate with their victims—relationships that are essential to the fraud. Take the story of Lillian, the little old lady who invested with Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. After her husband died, she thought her family's treasure of $24 million in stock controlled by Buffett was safe. It was—until a family relative introduced the eighty-nine-year-old grandmother to a pair of unscrupulous insurance agents who convinced her to reinvest her savings in life insurance—decimating her nest egg while padding the agents' pockets. Lillian's story, as well as other accounts of deceit and fraud are the core of Financial Serial Killers . Readers will learn how to better protect their family's wealth and savings after reading this book.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2010

About the author

Tom Ajamie is an internationally-recognized trial lawyer who has successfully represented clients in complex commercial litigation and arbitration. The authoritative Chambers USA has described Tom as “relentless, energetic and intelligent” and a “hard-working and successful trial lawyer who never quits.” He has handled a number of high-profile cases, including groundbreaking securities and financial cases, cross-border litigation, business contract disputes and employment issues. Tom has won two of the largest awards ever handed down by an arbitration panel for investors, including a $429.5 million award. He has also won a record $112 million civil RICO jury verdict — the largest in United States history.

Tom has been recognized by numerous legal publications and directories, including Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation, and Super Lawyers. The National Law Journal has named Tom one of its 50 Litigation Trailblazers. He was also honored as one of the nation’s 500 Leading Lawyers by Lawdragon, as well as that publication’s “100 Lawyers You Need to Know in Securities Litigation.” The Martindale-Hubbell law directory, which ranks the legal ability of lawyers, gave Tom an AV rating. He is also a life member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, whose membership is limited to attorneys who have won multi-million dollar verdicts, awards and settlements–fewer than 1% of U.S. attorneys.

Tom is regularly invited to give legal analysis by news media outlets including ABC, CNN, CNBC, NPR and BBC, and his work has been featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The American Lawyer. He is the co-author of the book Financial Serial Killers: Inside the World of Wall Street Money Hustlers, Swindlers, and Con Men. His work in exposing disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein is featured in the instant New York Times bestseller She Said, by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. His work on behalf of investors in the Bre-X gold scandal is featured in the book Fools’ Gold: the Making of a Global Market Fraud, by Brian Hutchinson.

The Ajamie Scholarship Fund was created by Tom as a way of promoting tolerance and equality among our youth. The Scholarship Fund offers university scholarships to students who display respect and support diversity initiatives in our society, without regard to race, religion, creed, skin color, national or ethnic origin, sex, age, disability or sexual orientation.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters went into too much detail - for the average investor. But most of the chapters were informative and the tips at the end of each chapter were a great summary of things to keep in mind.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

494 - 2019

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great concept that was sloppily put together. The interesting stories of financial fraud are strung together between repetative tirades about weak regulatory oversight of the securities industry. It became clear when Tom complained about the salaries of regulators that this book was actually quite biased. Despite his ranting, I enjoyed learning the specifics about Maddoff's scheme and other "financial serial killers."

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information contained was interesting but most seemed to be common sense. This may have to do with the time difference from the time of publishing, which was not that long ago, to present time. It is possible that it feels less of great interest and new information due to the rapidly changing financial markets.

[Madonna Analla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this for everyone regardless if they have investments or not. It shows you what cons are out there and points out that everyone is vulnerable to a potential sales pitch if they don't know what to look out for. I'll be reading this one again.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very poorly written, 9 year olds may like it, but not really for adults

[Jack Oughton · Rating 2 out of 5]

executive summary: if you have some 'spare money', hide it under the bed or spend it all on alcohol FAST before wall street gets to it.