Bandit Capitalism

How Financial Crooks Are Robbing the World

Robert Barrington on the global rise of financial criminality

About the Ebook

The collapse in January 2018 of the construction giant Carillion, outsourcer of huge Government building contracts, is one of the great financial scandals of modern times. When it folded it had only £29 million in the bank and debts and other liabilities adding up to a staggering £7 billion. When the total losses were counted it was established that the banks were owed £1.3 billion in loans and that there was a hole in the pension fund of £2.6 billion.That left British taxpayers picking up the tab to salvage the pensions owed to Carillion workers.

On one level, this is a familiar story of directors who systematically looted a company with the aim of their own enrichment. But in a wider context the Carillion catastrophe exposes everything that is wrong about the state we are in now – the free-for-all of company laws which govern directors' dealings, the toothless regulators, the crime and very little punishment of the Big Four auditors, and a government which is a prisoner of a broken model born of a political ideology which it cannot forsake.

Through the story of Carillion, Bob Wylie exposes the lawlessness of contemporary capitalism that is facilitated by hapless politicians, and gives a warning for the future that must be heeded. Bandit Capitalism charts, in jaw-dropping detail, the rise and rise of the British Oligarchy.

Why You'll Love This Ebook

• Discover how international finance has been hijacked by criminal interests
• Learn about the institutions, networks, and people enabling global theft
• Engage with searching investigative writing on contemporary economics
• Read another celebrated title from Birlinn Ltd - Independent Scottish Publisher

Reviews

'An excoriating book on the corruption that can lurk within contemporary capitalism. Wylie focuses on the case of now-bankrupt Carillion, which was a giant provider of outsourced services to the UK government. This company was looted by management, at the expense of taxpayers and workers. But, he stresses, Carillion is merely an extreme example of corporate malfeasance. When management is expected to run companies for the purpose of enriching themselves, trouble is sure to ensue. It did and it does' Financial Times 'Best books of 2020'

'Timely… highlights Carillion's dreadful treatment of its supply chain' Building.co.uk

'A whodunnit without that being a mystery at all. … Says much about the current state of affairs in the UK' Scottish Review

About the Author

Bob Wylie is well-known for his 14 years with BBC Scotland as a news correspondent. More recently he was the chief of staff and senior advisor to the Leader of Glasgow City Council, for almost two years. Then for a similar time he was the media director with the Unite union in Scotland. He now runs his own media consultancy, which frequently delivers on trade union projects, including work with the GMB.

Publication Details

Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

Publication Date: 10 September 2020

Print Length: 304 pages (Ebook edition)

ISBN (Ebook): 9781788852609

Format: Ebook

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