The Key Man: The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale

If all the money ever pledged had gone to those causes then we wouldn't have a huge equality divide. Always ask to see where the money went

This would be such a good story without the endless moralizing. The story the authors want to tell, about the inequality of the financial system and the (to them) shallowness of corporate efforts to do good is very different from the fascinating story of personal corruption at the heart of Abraaj. Such a lost opportunity.There are a few notable moments when the authors cross a line. Their comment that Abraaj’s standard 2%/20% fee structure was not public is probably factually incorrect.

I enjoyed this enough for its simple language and ease of reading. The story is moderately interesting, but unfortunately the main player “The Key Man” is an unremarkable, predictable man, which takes the excitement out of this book. Given that the authors are journalists, the book doesn’t have strong literary merit, but rather the halting, mashing together of facts that you get when reading the newspaper. Still highly digestible and a deep enough dive into impact investing fraud.

Arif Naqvi’s family moved from India to Karachi, Pakistan when he was a child. He grew up in the impoverished city and even more impoverished country but was determined to excel and become rich. He did. The problem was not the goal but the means. Scams are abundant wherever there is greed, for where greed is, gullibility is not far behind. Arif stole hundreds of millions of dollars from investors in the private equity funds he set up. Glib, confident, and charismatic, Arif was a master at fund-raising. He was also cold, manipulative, and vicious when it comes to knocking off his rivals. To the world he was a ‘gentleman who was a gentle man, who is caring, concerned, and compassionate man’. To his staff, he was a scary, temperamental and abusive boss. This two-faced Janus enabled Arif to draw money into his funds and for him to transfer them to his personal uses. This book reads like a fiction, and is enthralling in how Arif built his empire. His series of theft from 2014 to 2019 was breath-taking and the reader is left to wonder when his crimes would be discovered. Yet when his empire was crumbling, he was still, using the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, trying to raise $6 billion for a new fund. The list of the rich and famous who had been duped by Arif runs long, as does the personal lavish spending – including his attempt to trade-in his $20m superyacht for one twice the price. In the end, one wonders why audits and savvy investors could so easily be fooled. There are rich lessons to be found in this book.

The book provides unparalleled insights into the dark side of a psychopath- a non-pareil trickster with a brilliantly twisted mind in a truly international setting. A fraud who beguiled billionaires, powerful politicians and also the average Joe and Jane with his suave looks and mannerisms and polished language while enriching himself beyond the dreams of avarice and at the same time plundering the rich in the name of helping “growth markets” as he called it. Arid Naqvi is not the first fraudster in the post internet era but he is one of a kind in that he comfortably straddled the rich of Davos and the marginalized of his home country: Pakistan

Your courage and persistence to investigate this story is laudable and in a small way contributes to keeping the industry accountable.

The authors have achieved something unusual. They have taken what should have been a really riveting story and made it banal. It's only in the last few chapters, when the jig is up, that you get engaged. The rest of it is little more than a roll call of all the supposedly smart people and institutions that were duped, and a lot of jet-setting from one conference to another. Compare this to, say, Billion Dollar Whale or Black Edge, and it doesn't come out well. It's also unsatisfying because there's no conclusion - to this date, Arif Naqvi still hasn't had his day in court, so we don't know the final outcome. It's a great story, but could have been better presented.

Great Read. As an investment professional, I have a keen interest in the inner workings at Abraaj, pre & post collapse. A must have for any Emerging Markets investment professional.

A great book that opens the eyes of industry experts and outsiders alike, about the risks of the private equity industry, its opacity and its grandiose claims, even when they sound as laudable as Abraaj’s. Very entertaining, but deeply insightful.

Firstly, Charles Ponzi, then Bernie Madoff; who would have thought that there could be a third “player” in this true but unbelievable story? An incredible expose of the world’s largest financial crash of a private equity business. Expertly written by the US/UK journalists, this is a factual story which the reader will not put down until the very last page. The perpetrator is still being pursued by the US courts, so stay tuned for further episodes. Well done SC and WL!

Great investigative journalism. Snake oil salesmen now have MBAs but the pitch is basically the same. It’s a classic line. Turning lead into Gold. Read on.

A very good read that reveals more than just what happened at Abraaj. On a human dimension, it tells how greed, vanity and a sense of entitlement can run all talent to ground. To award yourself $53.5 Million dollars in annual compensation when you are making losses and facing cash crunch is pen-point robbery, a variant of the gun-point robbery of olden times. Arif Naqvi did have a sharp business sense. In high-stakes business battles, much as in the more lethal kind, you need this killer instinct to survive. But nobody ALWAYS wins no matter what the game and if you cannot retreat and accept losses when they are due, you should get ready for annihilation.The book also reveals the ecosystem in which Arif Naqvi was operating. He comes out as the principal but not the sole villain—he was throwing pounds of flesh that allowed him to swim safely for so long. From the NGO sponsored Davos summit with $348,673 dinner for politicians to $20 Million for lobbying fee to seek a single favorable decision. After all, what wisdom did Senator John Kerry offer in the speech where he was paid $ 250,000 except that he could offer tacit connections to government and tax-payers money. But this was all kosher and remains so in high finance. What is interesting is that the Professors from Harvard and Yale turn out to be no better than the average Joes and were not able to read the situation any better. Cambridge, Harvard, Dartmouth, Wharton, Yale and London School of Economics feature generously amongst the players. It was interesting to read that KPMG could not interpret $100 Million+ random entries and walked away with their professional licenses intact. The facts indeed are “an indictment of the expert class.”The authors, however, are very cautious when it comes to discussing the companies managed by Abraaj. I guess they had to be since aggressive law firms and libel prevent much sordid truth to come out. I was hoping to read more details about some of the companies that Abraaj operated to understand what lead to their failures. My hunch is that exploring the companies will also be a treasure trove of extraordinary payments for some ordinary tasks.I am very mistrustful of someone championing private initiative on public money and the whole posturing and positioning of Abraaj confirms this suspicion. The authors have done a wonderful job and their observation is pertinent that any discussion to improve the quality of life of the poor must include the poor themselves and must not be left to billionaires and politicians in Davos or The Connaught.

Arbraaj was a private equity fund specialising in emerging market investments. For a short time it did OK, then for a long time it didn't. Its founder, a certain Arif Naqvi, developed a taste for the usual baubles - the Kensington town house, the country retreat, private jets, single malts - and a spiel about helping the poor while luxuriating in the adulation of the Davos crowd.The authors meticulously document how it all went wrong. Readers may find the detail a bit repetitive and boring, but it shows how easily auditors (KPMG), lawyers (Freshfields) and find managers (Bill Gates foundation, government agencies) were duped.If there's a moral to the story it is possibly Dr Johnson's. "A man is seldom less innocently employed than when making money." When some snake oil salesman turns up promising outsize investment returns and saving the world as well, it's a good idea to look under the hood.