What a whirlwind story of greed, corruption and money. A shadowy Malaysian siphons off literally billions of dollars from a "sovereign wealth fund", making sure to grease the pockets of the Malaysian politicians giving him the money. This book documents his rise and slight fall, documenting some seriously crazy conspicuous spending of Jho Low, from the biggest party ever seen in Las Vegas(!) to an ostentatious beyond belief yacht, literally the 7th largest in the world.

The best quote in the book comes from Jordan Belfort, the scumbag portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street. A group formed by Low bought the rights to the book and got Scorcese and DiCaprio involved in the project and threw a hugely ridiculous launch party that was completely over the top. It was so crazy it even rang hollow to Belfort, who told his wife "anybody who does this has stolen money. You wouldn't spend money you worked for like that."

I read it in like 3 days. This kind of lightning reading had both its good side and its bad side. The good side was keeping some of these connections fresh, as there were some really twisted lines. But it was also so overwhelming, the ugly naked greed and the fantastic number of shell companies used to hide the money. Gross. Fascinating in a "watch a car crash" kind of way though.