Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation

A rollicking story of greed, financial corruption, dirty politics, over-the-top and under-the-radar deceit, illicit sex, and a brilliant and wildly charming con man who kept a Ponzi scheme alive perhaps for longer than anyone else in history. It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies thrived, gang war shootings announced Al Capones rise to underworld domination, Chicagos corrupt political leaders fraternized with gangsters, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people who should have known better to invest as much as 30 million--upwards of 400 million today--in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama.