This is actually my second copy. A friend borrowed it and never gave it back.
This is one of those crazy true-life stories that are stranger than fiction. Mystery and business readers will enjoy this tale of a smart con man who builds an empire based on greed and lies, and how it unravels.
WHAT AN ANNOYING SCREWHEAD. I keep trying to read this book and have given up.
This is a very good read, in many senses better than many novels on the market. Yet I ultimately found the book quite empty and deficient in explaining just HOW the scam that Frankel pulled off actually worked and who was actually harmed in the process.
I read this book over a couple of days and I was thoroughly entertained. Martin Frankel was an ultimate sleazeball, basically a financial psychopath who was willing to rip off thousands of people while quoting St.
Martin Frankel was an odd genius. In his twenties, he was still living with his parents and had only fantasies about women, not dates.
Here's a fast moving book that I read before the Enron story broke. It was hard to put down as it is truly amazing that Frankel got away with so much, for so long.
This is not so much about how he "fooled" people as the lack of persistence of the insurance regulators. It would be funny if it wasn't true.
I love books on finance and crime. Unfortunately, this book leaves a lot to be desired.
Some great research went into this book. It is amazing how long Frankel got away with his ripping off of the insurance companies he owned.
Having followed this story in the newspaper (WSJ & NYT) as it happened, I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, the book shed little new information.
This is a great read. Pollock finds enough twists and turns and has enough insight into human nature to turn a story of a very weird guy in the insurance biz into a fascinating tale of money, sex and greed.
After receiving this book as a christmas gift i was extremely pleased over how an important subject could also be a great read.
This guy is a buffoon but somehow fooled many. I had heard of this case but didn't know prior to his investments in small insurance companies he had already been charged with improper handling of money and denied the ability to manage money by securities regulators.
Nothing you know will prepare you for the bizarre mind and world of Marty Frankel. The story of how he got away with bilking southern insurance companies of 215 million smackers, how he bamboozled the Vatican and US legal bigwigs into going along with his frauds, and how he engaged in off hours activities that set a new standard for perversity is beyond imagining.
