Conspiracy of Fools

A True Story

By: Kurt Eichenwald

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling true story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever.

It was the corporate collapse that appeared to come out of nowhere. In late 2001, the Enron Corporation—a darling of the financial world, a company whose executives were friends of presidents and the powerful—imploded virtually overnight, leaving vast wreckage in its wake and sparking a criminal investigation that would last for years.

Kurt Eichenwald transforms the unbelievable story of the Enron scandal into a rip-roaring narrative of epic proportions, taking readers behind every closed door—from the Oval Office to the executive suites, from the highest reaches of the Justice Department to the homes and bedrooms of the top officers. It is a tale of global reach—from Houston to Washington, from Bombay to London, from Munich to Sao Paolo—laying out the unbelievable scenes that twisted together to create this shocking true story.

Eichenwald reveals never-disclosed details of a story that features a cast including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul O’Neill, Harvey Pitt, Colin Powell, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. With its you-are-there glimpse into the secretive worlds of corporate power, Conspiracy of Fools is an all-true financial and political thriller of cinematic proportions.

Critic reviews

Praise for Kurt Eichenwald’s bestseller, The Informant:

“Ranks with A Civil Action as one of the best nonfiction books of the last decade.”
—New York Times Book Review

“The thriller of the year—and it’s all true!”
—Dallas Morning News

“One of the most intriguing—and nearly unbelievable—nonfiction books in recent memory . . . a tangled tale worthy of John Le Carré.”
—Portland Oregonian

“A compelling narrative . . . a business book for Grisham readers.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Reads like a well-written whodunit.”
—Denver Post

“A spellbinding account, as much of a page-turner as a Grisham novel.”
—Washington Monthly

“I guarantee it’ll keep you reading late into the night.”
—Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action

A wonderful insight

Who knew that a 30 hour book on the collapse of a company could be so interesting? It is very interesting to hear from the inside how events progressed - and the magnitude of the incompetence of key players in the story.

I boarded the Titanic as it was hitting the iceberg

I joined Enron in September 2001 and had a relatively unbiased view of the implosion. Most employees liked Ken Lay all the way until the end. Never heard anything good about Fastow even before everything was exposed. His reputation was that he was an arrogant @$$. Was Watkins more of a whistleblower than others at the company or just jealous that she didn’t get offered the lucrative partnership deals? Enron had smart people and good ideas. Their trading business was really good. Less than a dozen people brought the company down. And Andy Fastow was ordained CFO of the year by CFO Magazine? What a joke!

Fascinating but tedious

It's a great book very well researched. But, and this is no fault of the author, The story of corruption begins early in the book and continues on and on until finally all the Domino's fall Down. It is somewhat tedious and exhausting. For the casual reader not schooled in high level finance much of the deals and special purpose entities that bring down Enron are far too complex to understand without boxes and charts. Which is no surprise because the experts who worked at Enron needed those exact boxes and charts and still were misled.

Excellent!

I have to say, beyond learning corporate and financial terms I didn't know before, this book is amazing. It is a very well written narrative, I only got lost once or twice, and that was mostly do to the 36hour length than anything.

This book sure opened my eyes to what actually went on at Enron, from start to finish, it's amazing. I would drive around the city aimlessly just so I could listen! You would hear one absurdity that passed for logic at Enron and would think that surely, this would be the final nail in the coffin, then you realized you were only two hours in. it's that good.

The narration is the only reason this book didn't receive a five star. I found the character voices indistinguishable at times, and the character personalities seemed to be reduced to, whiny, angry, pensive and passive. There wasn't a lot of differentiation or vocal personality. Other than that, it was well paced, clearly read and a joy to listen too.

The first hour sets things up, it may seem a little slow, but it is definitely worth it. A real must read for any business owner. It should be subtitled, how not to ruin an company.

Journalism in its finest form

The author did his homework for the story. The details and characters described in the book are vivid and believable. The narrator is superb too.

All in all a five stars audiobook! Worth listening again when I find time.