American Kleptocracy

How the U.S. Created the World's Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History

By: Casey Michel

Narrated by: Joe Dwyer

A remarkable debut by one of America's premier young reporters on financial corruption, American Kleptocracy offers the first explosive investigation into how the United States of America built the largest illicit offshore finance system the world has ever known.

"An indefatigable young American journalist who has virtually cornered the international kleptocracy beat on the US end of the black aquifer." (The Los Angeles Review of Books)

For years, one country has acted as the greatest offshore haven in the world, attracting hundreds of billions of dollars, and potentially more, in illicit finance tied directly to corrupt regimes, extremist networks, and the worst the world has to offer. But it hasn’t been the sleepy, sand-splattered Caribbean islands, or even traditional financial secrecy havens like Switzerland or Panama, that have come to dominate the offshoring world. Instead, the country profiting the most from modern offshoring also happens to be the one that still claims to be the moral leader of the free world, and the one that claims to be leading the fight against the crooked and the corrupt: the United States of America.

From anonymous shell companies and legal inventions like “perpetual trusts” to public relations and lobbying shops willing to do anything they can to camouflage the source of the dirty money, the United States’ transformation into the center of global offshoring is complete. And while Donald Trump presented, in many ways, the ultimate culmination of the US’s descent, the country’s trajectory has been decades in the making.

American Kleptocracy will examine just how the United States’ implosion into a center of global offshoring took place: how states like Delaware and Nevada perfected the art of the anonymous shell company, and how post-9/11 reformers watched their success usher in a new flood of illicit finance directly into the US; how African despots and post-Soviet oligarchs came to dominate American coastlines, American industries, and entire cities and small towns across the American Midwest; how Nazi-era lobbyists birthed an entire industry of spin-men whitewashing trans-national crooks and despots, and how dirty money has now begun infiltrating America's universities and think tanks and cultural centers; and how those on the front-line are trying to restore America's legacy of anti-corruption leadership - and finally end this reign of American kleptocracy.

It will also look at how Trump’s presidency accelerated all of the trends already on hand - and how the Biden administration can, and should, act on this inheritance.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

©2021 Casey Michel (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Casey Michel cuts through the spin, to reveal the inner workings of the American economy. His writing has shown again and again the subterfuges and secrecy at the heart of how money moves through the financial system, and does it with panache, wit, and a blessed aversion to jargon. I always read his work, and can't wait to read this one." (Oliver Bullough, author of the international best seller Moneyland: The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule the World)

"Casey is the foremost journalistic voice in the fight against kleptocracy. No other individual is so consistently on the case and interested in both the actors and the possible policy responses. His knowledge of the existential danger posed by kleptocracy is bar none, and we rely on his work like no one else to inform policy." (Paul Massaro, congressional policy advisor, US Helsinki Commission)

Reality Strikes

This is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand politics of today's America. The book covers things we know to be true, but the extent of the corruption if America is surprising and terrifying. Though both parties play to some extent, this result is the outcome of the breaking of American government by the GOP. Regulating business and reigning in broken state governments is vital. Well told tale with examples and cases to balance policy discussions.

Follow the money…

That was a real eye opener- almost sad to think we (American voters) are complicit in enabling all these things to transpire- and further amazing to think how many Americans just love the Trump organization- and how he ‘drained the swamp’ along with trying to decide if I’ve been alive for any positive presidents who truly had moral or ethical principles? Republicans/Democrats can’t seem to decide which is worse. Thank you for your research- and publishing this information. Wow, just, wow!

Relevant topic for today

I learned a lot about the hiding of money by foreign nationals in US banks. Fascinating material well presented, easy to understand. Good narration.

It's okay. I prefer The Flow of Illicit Funds ...

... which I just reviewed here. This one is entertaining, I guess. I wanted something more systematic in its coverage, not a few glossy stories. I hear about another sports car or L.A. mansion, and I glaze over. Who cares about that trash? There was some reasonably current discussion about what the enforcers are doing.

American Kleptocracy

This is a very important book. It is so relevant helping everyday people like me have a far better understanding of how dirty money has been lawfully laundered!! Because of the current situation with Russia and Ukraine,we hear the word oligarchy and how oligarchs and their money has become part of the focus on sanctions. A clear and concise reporting of the subject.

Really Good Read

This book was very clear and educational. Audio book speaker had an overly rapid cadence.

Eye opening

Everyone should read/listen to this book. It will really explains how how corrupt our financial system is.

gripping telling of an important invisible story

America is a playground for the world's greediest thieves. They steal from the people they are entrusted to lead plundering their own countries. Then, to use their Ill gotten wealth they plunder the United States. Worse, American governments help them do it. We are all victims of kleptocracy and it's time we knew about it.

American Kleptocracy tells this complex story in an engaging and relatively easy listen.

Listeners may start looking at the expensive empty homes in their cities, the grand investments that go nowhere, factories that are bought with great promise then slide into disrepair, or the names on the side of school buildings and ask "where did that money come from and why is it not doing anything?"

Whence is the money!?!?

Excellent book. highly recommended for anyone into true crime, nonfiction, economics, foreign policy, or wants to know what really happened to their town.

Too many assumptions, less facts

This book covers an important topic, but is, at best, very circumstantial and is using very little fact to build a story.

One sided, but entertaining and well researched

Knowledgeable author, good writer, but wildly biased in a painfully leftist (not liberal) way. Basically claims that nobody should ever be allowed financial privacy from politicians under any circumstances. Ironic considering he refers to government corruption throughout the entire work.