Diving into the Murky World of Scandals

Fraudster Tales: History's Greatest Financial Criminals and Their Catastrophic Crimes By: Vijay Narayan Govind Publisher: Pan Macmillan Price: ₹499 Pages: 290

- VIR AEIJAZ

The author picks stories, random perhaps, from Athens and other countries, including India. Haridas Mundhra in the tale of 'The Great Investor' and Natwarlal in 'The Master Manipulator' are the two Indians figuring in the book. The Mundhra scandal, first of its kind in independent India, not only was embroiled with the stock markets and financial institutions but was an expose of the wicked nexus between political party, bureaucracy, ministers and business class, perhaps a prototype of 'crony capitalism'. The conman Mudhra duped Life Insurance Company (LIC) by forging share certificates, using them as collateral for loans, and amassing huge loans to the tune of Rs 15.60 crore by the mid of 1957. It was Feroz Gandhi, the law maker, who brought this scam to public attention that led to nationalization of LIC, resignation of T T Krishnamachari - then finance minister, indictment of finance secretary a