The picture that emerges from Mavin’s forensic and riveting book is of a man driven by grasping insecurity. Most of the other people in the hotel cafe were wealthy tourists, and there was a useful buzz of noise that meant we could chat freely without being overheard.

The Pyramid of Lies by Duncan Mavin review – the disgraced

As the former prime minister sketched out his thoughts on a whiteboard, some Greensill executives were taken aback by his brazenness in explaining a referendum that had been a major black eye and an embarrassing, terminal defeat for Cameron’s government. Mr Guppy explained that he wanted to beat up Mr Collier and give him “a couple of black eyes and a cracked rib or something like that”.

While it is generally agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. The surge in new, disruptive technology companies after the financial crisis is not without its villains too.

Pyramid of Lies - Pan Macmillan AU Pyramid of Lies - Pan Macmillan AU

The Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, tougher regulations had forced traditional banks to set aside large amounts of capital to cover for another calamity.

The township, which is named after the Bunda kinship group of the local indigenous Taribelang people, was entirely flooded in the 1960s, an event that caused widespread economic pain and lived long in the memories of the region’s farmers. Its corporate governance processes – the checks and balances that prevent wrongdoing and mishaps – had not kept up with the pace of the company’s expansion.

Pyramid of Lies by Duncan Mavin | Waterstones Pyramid of Lies by Duncan Mavin | Waterstones

He didn’t exactly hide the true perilous state of Greensill’s business from the board and senior managers. At Saqqara, Mastaba 3808, dating from the latter part of the 1st Dynasty, was discovered to contain a large, independently built step-pyramid-like structure enclosed within the outer palace facade mastaba.The schemes generally fall apart when the operators flee with the proceeds or when a sufficient number of new investors cannot be found to allow the continued payment of “dividends. In the tough farming landscape of Bundaberg, Lex was learning there was another way to rise to the top. The Cabinet Office was later accused of failing to disclose critical WhatsApp texts between Mr Johnson and the Lord Brownlow of Shurrock, who funded the refurbishment before being paid back in full by the Prime Minister. But being a small, close community, I think people have kind of wrapped their arms around some of these people [who were victims]. Before the final denouement, Greensill attempted to obtain additional funding from loan guarantee schemes set up by the government to support businesses through the Covid-induced recession in 2020.