Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world

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Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world

Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world

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There’s so much history that was lost; and when older people I was trying to get to talk died, it felt like it was slipping through my fingers. In this absorbing true crime narrative, Yeebo details the fascinating story of this audacious con artist Decades after Blay-Miezah’s death, the con is still thriving, and other people are out there collecting investments for the supposed fund. If they’re any good, they probably don’t think what they’re doing is beyond the pale. “You can’t just be a liar,” Yeebo said. “You actually have to believe in it a little bit yourself.” An unflinching look at history that illuminates both the past and the present. Meticulously and impressively researched, Anansi's Gold is a sharply written and highly engaging account of Blay-Miezah's life, of politics and society in Ghana, and of the rapaciousness and cruelty of colonization and of external involvement in Africa. An essential work by a great writer." -- Peace Adzo Medie, author of HIS ONLY WIFE When Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957, it immediately became a target for opportunists determined to lay hold of whatever assets colonialism hadn’t already stripped. The military ousted the new nation’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of stealing the country’s gold and hiding it overseas.

When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn’t already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation’s inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country’s gold overseas.Anansi's Gold is as gripping as a heist movie, with a sparkling cast and a plot that is stranger than fiction. Yepoka Yeebo tells a tale from another time, but in an era of fake news and too-good-to-be-true cryptocurrency scams, it feels thrillingly contemporary." -- Tom Standage, author of A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 6 GLASSES

Thrilling . . . Yeebo tells the jaw-dropping story of [Ghanaian con artist Blay-Miezah] . . . meticulously researched’ Guardian

About the contributors

When Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957, it immediately became a target for opportunists determined to lay hold of whatever assets colonialism hadn't already stripped. The military ousted the new nation's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of stealing the country's gold and hiding it overseas. Blay-Miezah was born poor but made his way as a young man to America. There he got a taste for enterprise and sensed a golden opportunity. He buzzed around America, Europe and Asia—always staying in swanky hotels, always on someone else’s dime—peddling the story that he had been made custodian of Nkrumah’s trust fund for the gold. He promised that those who funded his efforts to retrieve the bounty would share handsomely in it. The gold, of course, never appeared. In the mid-1970s, a charismatic young Ghanaian named John Blay-Miezah was out and about in London,New York and Philadelphia. This urbane Penn grad, now in his early 30s, had an astonishing tale to tell and an extraordinary deal to offer. The astounding, never-before-told story of how an ingenious Ghanaian con artist ran one of the 20th century’s longest and most audacious frauds. Victims included heads of state, politicians and businessmen. “Those who believe Blay-Miezah a fraud,” the American ambassador to Ghana wrote to Henry Kissinger, “are worried he might just have the money and then they would look extremely foolish.”

This compelling story of a charismatic conman who fooled thousands . . . This is a glorious tale of greed, exploited by an astonishingly brazen fraudster T or F? Blay-Miezah was married three times. He and his third wife were still legally married to previous spouses when that wedding was celebrated. Friends of Blay-Miezah’s second wife, Gladys, called her “Columbo” (after the TV detective!).

\"Riveting\"

American victims were more credulous. Some considered it a speculative investment. Others accepted that it would inevitably be a yearslong process, given the large sums involved. Even after they became disillusioned, few were willing to publicly admit they had been duped.

The staff freaked out,” Stephens said. It was more aromatic than the food ordinarily found in a Channel Islands hotel kitchen. “They ended up opening all the windows,” he said. “They didn’t complain, though. Blay-Miezah was spending too much money. If they complained, there’d be trouble.” Many of the investors simply could not admit to themselves that they had been scammed. It was less painful to keep giving Anansi one last chance. In this sense the fraud, for all its audacity, was like so many others before and since. The high life Blay-Miezah enjoyed for so long owed much to the sunk-cost fallacy. After American law-enforcement finally twigged on to the scam, it took years to unravel. Blay-Miezah returned to Ghana but was never fully held to account, dying at his home in 1992 after a few years of house arrest. TRUE OR FALSE? Gerald Smith, a “woebegone bank manager” who had been allegedly duped by Blay-Miezah, was arrested by the FBI. In court, Smith’s attorney told the judge that Blay-Miezah “could sell a Toyota to the president of General Motors.” Diplomats, Nixon associates and businessmen – as well as humble mom-and-pop investors – had bought into Blay-Miezah’s claims. He said that he had been in Bucharest, at the deathbed of Nkrumah, who entrusted him with the hidden riches of Ghana, which declared independence in 1957. (At the time of Nkrumah’s death, Blay-Miezah was actually thousands of miles away, serving time in a prison outside Philadelphia.)Yepoka Yeebo's riveting Anansi's Gold traces the outlines of Blay-Miezah's life, shedding light on how he perpetrated his deceptions for years while living in incredible opulence. The author delves into archives across the Atlantic, digs up criminal proceedings and conducts interviews with victims and associates alike, in the process telling us not just about Blay-Miezah, but about the world that enabled him to thrive." -- New York Times Book Review Reading Anansi's Gold is like watching a heist movie ... all about improvisation, unforced error, unlikely escape. " -- Dan Piepenbring, Harper's The astounding, never-before-told story of how an ingenious Ghanaian con artist ran one of the 20th century's longest and most audacious frauds. I enjoy stories about fraudsters and swindlers. I had read news articles or passing information about the case of Ghana's "missing" gold, but I knew little about it. In summary, John Blay-Miezah was a bright Ghanaian who studied overseas and bounced around a bit before he came up with a wild scam: upon his death President Nkrumah had put Blay-Miezah in charge of trust fund worth billions of dollars. Blay-Miezah worked his way through London, Philadelphia, Conkary, Geneva, New York, Accra, and Seoul getting people to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to help him get the trust fund released. Along the way, Blay-Miezah works must peddle around coups, expulsions, and diplomatic entanglements.



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