SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEARTheWall Street Journal's award-winning business reporter unveils the bizarre and sinister story of how a math genius named Tom Hayes, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system ignited one of the greatest financial scandals in history.In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the worlds largest financial institutions made a startling realization: Liborthe London interbank offered rate, which determines interest rates on trillions in loans worldwidewas set daily by a small group of easily manipulated functionaries. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of shadowy team that used hook and crook to take over the process and set rates that made them a fortune, no matter the cost to others. Among the motley crew was a French trader nicknamed Gollum; the broker Abbo, who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a Kazakh chicken farmer turned something short of financial whiz kid; an executive called Clumpy because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed Big Nose. Eventually known as the Spider Network, Hayess circle generated untold riches until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion.Praised as reading like a fast-paced John le Carr thriller (New York Times), compelling (Washington Post) and jaw-dropping (Financial Times), The Spider Networkis not only a rollicking account of the scam, but a provocative examination of a financial system that was warped and shady throughout.
