Kirkus Review
The granddaddy of all con men, Leo Koretz (1881-1925), gives Jobb (Journalism/Univ. of King's Coll., Halifax; The Cajuns: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph, 2005) the opportunity to exhibit his impressive research and storytelling skills.The original Ponzi scheme lasted less than a year, but Koretz had already laid the groundwork for the greatest fraud ever. Bored with his life as a lawyer, he discovered an easy way to make money from people who already had plenty, but selling false mortgages to acquaintances didn't begin to support his extravagant lifestyle. Eventually, a merchant named David Nieto drew Koretz in, claiming to have acreage in the Bayano Valley in Panama that had a limitless supply of timber. After investing $1,000, Koretz convinced friends to add another $9,000. When he went to Panama to inspect the land, he knew he'd been played for a sucker. He may have lost money, but it showed him the means to get others to invest in his "big idea" to profit from "timberland" in Panama. Throughout his fraudulent "career," he was clever in choosing investors, never asking outright for money. Instead, he hinted at the great wealth he was making, and he flaunted it, insisting he was fully backed. Nothing drives up demand like short supply, and the wealthy friends he lavishly entertained were begging to give him money. As often as not, he turned them down, but they invariably came back with still larger checks. Koretz used the new income to pay out dividends to the investors, many of whom were his own extended family. In a stroke of evil genius, he convinced most of them to reinvest the dividends, most never taking a dime of profit. The author keeps readers on edge following the scam's collapse and the worldwide manhunt, as they wait to see if Koretz might just get away with it. A highly readable, entertaining story offering a solid education for anyone lacking scruples and wanting to make money. Surely Bernie Madoff studied Koretz's methods. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Dubbed the super-Ponzi by a Chicago newspaper in 1923, fraudster Leo Koretz spread his faux investment scheme over 20 years, selling bogus stock to family, friends, and those who begged to get in on the sure thing of his oil fields in Panama and other dubious moneymakers. Genial, humorous, and well-liked by the ladies (unbeknownst to his dedicated wife), Koretz doled out monthly dividends, keeping everyone wealthy and happy, until the whole thing collapsed, as such pyramid schemes must. Jobb's hearty, detailed retelling of this con man extraordinaire is a laugh-out-loud page-turner, full of gullibility and twists and turns (Zane Grey makes an appearance, as does Clarence Darrow) and serves almost as much as a you-were-there history of the making of Chicago's big-shouldered outlook as it does a replaying of Koretz's long-term scam. Staunchly leading the Koretz manhunt was Koretz's former law-firm mate, Cook County state's attorney Robert Fighting Bob Crowe. Peppered with contemporaneous photos depicting the key players and the swanky places, phony stock certificates, newspaper headlines, and even a wanted posted, Empire of Deception is a jaw-dropping, rollicking good read.--Kinney, Eloise Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
EMPIRE OF DECEPTION: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation, by Dean Jobb. (Algonquin, $16.95.) In 1920s Chicago, Leo Koretz defrauded hundreds of people (including members of his own family) and lured them to invest millions of dollars in bogus overseas projects. Jobb's rollicking history of the con man doubles as a sobering reminder that, as our reviewer, Paula Uruburu, said, "those who think everything is theirs for the taking are destined to be taken." GOD HELP THE CHILD, by Toni Morrison. (Vintage, $14.95.) Even as a baby, Bride, the character at the heart of this story, was spurned by her parents because of her dark skin, and her cold upbringing reverberates throughout her adult life. The novel, which our reviewer, Kara Walker, called "a brisk modern-day fairy tale with shades of the Brothers Grimm," delivers a blunt moral: "What you do to children matters." THERE WAS AND THERE WAS NOT: A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond, by Meline Toumani. (Picador/Metropolitan/Holt, $18.) Growing up in an Armenian community in New Jersey, Toumani was steeped in fierce anti-Turkish rhetoric revolving around the genocide that began in 1915. As an adult, she moved to Istanbul to better understand the Turkish view. Her memoir recounts her years living amid an alternate understanding of history. A LITTLE LIFE, by Hanya Yanagihara. (Anchor, $17.) This expansive novel is an exploration of heartbreak and the limits of human resilience. Yanagihara's central character, Jude, emerges from a brutal childhood and builds an ostensibly successful life - he graduates with a law degree from Harvard, finds meaningful work as a litigator and is the heart of a close-knit group of friends - yet struggles to reconcile his past traumas. OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES AND OUR SACRED HONOR: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776, by Richard R. Beeman. (Basic Books, $18.99.) American independence from Britain may seem to have been an inevitable outcome, but Beeman offers a window into a time when that future was not so certain. His account follows the 22 months when delegates from the colonies, often with no more in common with one another than their status as British subjects, imagined a cohesive nation and identity. OUTLAWS, by Javier Cercas. Translated by Anne McLean. (Bloomsbury, $18.) In the late 1970s, when teenage gangs roamed post-Franco Spain, this novel's narrator, Ignacio Cañas, joined a group headed by a notorious outlaw, Zarco, but left after a failed robbery. Years later, Cañas is a successful lawyer and Zarco is in jail, but the men's lives intersect again. STALIN. VOLUME I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928, by Stephen Kotkin. (Penguin, $25.) This book, the first of a projected three-volume study, recounts Stalin's childhood in Georgia and subsequent rise to power. Kotkin's account also delivers an impressive history of late imperial Russia.
Library Journal Review
Jobb (journalism, Univ. of King's Coll.; The Cajuns) here tells the incredible story of Leo Koretz and his scheme to bilk his family, friends, and associates out of millions of dollars. The story of Koretz is told in parallel with that of the man who eventually captured him, Chicago state's attorney Robert Crowe. Through his Bayano River Syndicate, Koretz sold stock in worthless Panamanian land that he did not even own, telling investors that it contained vast oil and lumber reserves. Koretz continually brought in new investors to pay the owed dividends to the original investors (a Ponzi scheme). After several years of deception, the scheme collapsed in 1923. Koretz disappeared from Chicago and moved to Nova Scotia to buy a hunting lodge. A strange set of events led to his capture in 1924. Narrator Peter Berkrot has a distinctive voice that matches the 1920s era perfectly. VERDICT This book is written so well and performed so flawlessly on audio that it should be purchased by all libraries. Fans of Erik Larson will love Jobb's latest true crime masterpiece. ["This lively, entertaining, and depressingly relevant history of a man and his con reads like a novel and will be enjoyed by fans of popular history as well as true crime": LJ 3/15/15 starred review of the Algonquin hc.]-Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
