Customer Reviews

BRE-X: The Inside Story

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was an avid follower of the BreX scandal, reading about it daily in the financial press. Obviously, Diane Francis did too, lifting many passages directly from these newpaper clippings- her main source of information. It is an amateurish effort, from an immature author, -one who's idea of 'in depth' is nothing but gossip.Don't buy this garbage.

I did not follow the bre-x story as I do not invest in shares. I decided to read this book because in an earlier book I read, "Asian Eclipse", mention was made of the bre-x story and it seemed interesting to me. I was not dissapointed.

The Bre-x story revealed a lot about the greed of people and perhaps how people of the mining industry work. They depend a lot on guesswork.

It also shows how sloppy work done by analysts can result in a financial disaster. Analysts are supposed to be professionals and they are highly paid too. In the Bre-x story, it is revealed that some analysts can be easily influenced by weak evidence and are not as professional as they are made up to be. These sloppy professionals not only spoil the name of their profession, but clearly, do not deserve the high pay they demand.

The Bre-x story was in part fueled by the flawed recommendation of the analysts. This leads one to consider if financial disasters of the past are due in some ways to such sloppy professionals. Another train of thought is whether we should continue paying good money to such so-called professional analysts or consultants.

I like the book because it covered the whole story of bre-x and the reading was easy and captivating. It also showed issues of greed and insights into the world of finance and mining.

However, I was dissapointed in several parts of the book when the author repeated herself in the book. The other thing was that the author was not very good at telling the story when simultaneous events were happening. She has a tendency to back-track the story. As such, the story was not smooth in its delivery.

Overall, I will still recommend the book for those who are interested in the mining industry, financial scandals and tales of greed. Maybe, for those who are interested in the Soeharto family will also pick up the book. The family was featured in about a third of the book. The greed of the family was clearly shown in the book.

This saga of the greatest gold mining fraud in history is terrific. The narrative really does read like a novel, I couldn't put it down! How many non-fiction books can one say that about? Diane Francis has done an outstanding job of bringing the tale of the small Calgary junior mineral exploration company and it's officers to life: David Walsh, a failed penny-stock promoter, John Felderhof, a Dutch born globe trotting Canadian mineral exploration geologist and his colleauge and former co-worker Filipino geologist Michael de Guzman. Bre-X shares made a round trip from a penny stock listed on the Alberta Stock Exchange to a split adjusted price of C$286.50, for a market value of C$6.8 billion, at it's peak. Investors, both small individual and large institutional (including the mutual fund giant Fidelity), lost billions when the facts came to light about the company's Busang gold "deposit" in the Indonesian jungles of east Borneo, which was claimed to be the biggest in the world. After the news came out the stock tumbled on the Toronto Stock Exchange, causing their computer trading systems to lock up because of the huge volume of sales, to just a few cents a share days later before being delisted and worthless. Bre-X claims of finding the gold discovery of the century were discredited when U.S. mining firm Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold found "only insignificant amounts of gold'' in the core samples that it took as part of it's due diligence as Bre-X's partner to develop the deposit. Further audits found "virtually no possibility of an economic gold deposit." When company geologist Michael de Guzman was on the way to discuss Freeport's findings he comitted suicide by jumping out of a helicopter. Shortly afterward de Guzman's lieutenant, Cesar Puspos, and their Filipino geological team disappeared. I don't want to give away too much of the book, it is excellant and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in mining scams or investment swindles.

The title promises "the inside story," but most of this book appears to have been stitched together from newspaper reports. I kept looking for new material or fresh insights, but found very little. One of the themes is that the emergence of Internet-based investors' discussion groups has made the world a less safe place for ordinary shareholders. She doesn't present a convincing argument, however. After all, stock scams have always been with us.

This was a decent book. Several of the paragraphs were repeated and there is a lot of copy lifted from newspapers but Diane Francis interviews a lot of people in her own right. Perhaps she relies one family (the Chornys) to heavily for quotes. This is what you're going to get, however, when you rush a book to market so fast after the event. I would hardly call this an amateurish book. I think the previous reviewer is expecting a lot when they complain that this book wasn't exciting enough. After all, this is a business book and we're talking about core samples and security regulations here. Sometimes the facts can bog down the story. This isn't an Elmore Leonard novel although it probably could turn into one with a few minor changes and additions to the characters. I was a little disappointed with the title because it should really have been called "Fool's Gold." In any case, it's a decent read. I would have given four stars if there weren't except for the poor editing.

This was a decent book. Several of the paragraphs were repeated and there is a lot of copy lifted from newspapers but Diane Francis interviews a lot of people in her own right. Perhaps she relies one family (the Chornys) to heavily for quotes. This is what you're going to get, however, when you rush a book to market so fast after the event. I would hardly call this an amateurish book. I think the previous reviewer is expecting a lot when they complain that this book wasn't exciting enough. After all, this is a business book and we're talking about core samples and security regulations here. Sometimes the facts can bog down the story. This isn't an Elmore Leonard novel although it probably could turn into one with a few minor changes and additions to the characters. I was a little disappointed with the title because it should really have been called "Fool's Gold." In any case, it's a decent read. I would have given four stars if there weren't except for the poor editing.

This was a decent book. Several of the paragraphs were repeated and there is a lot of copy lifted from newspapers but Diane Francis interviews a lot of people in her own right. Perhaps she relies one family (the Chornys) to heavily for quotes. This is what you're going to get, however, when you rush a book to market so fast after the event. I would hardly call this an amateurish book. I think the previous reviewer is expecting a lot when they complain that this book wasn't exciting enough. After all, this is a business book and we're talking about core samples and security regulations here. Sometimes the facts can bog down the story. This isn't an Elmore Leonard novel although it probably could turn into one with a few minor changes and additions to the characters. I was a little disappointed with the title because it should really have been called "Fool's Gold." In any case, it's a decent read. I would have given four stars if there weren't except for the poor editing.

Poorly written. She takes all the excitement out of this story. Also poorly edited, with whole paragraphs repeated and contrdictory statments made - WAIT FOR THE MOVIE!