Serpent on the Rock: Crime, Betrayal and the Terrible Secrets of Prudential Bache [Hardcover]

Kurt Eichenwald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

During Wall Street's crime wave in the 1980s, no single brokerage firm, banker, or trader destroyed the financial security of more people than Prudential Bache Securities. Investigating the story for The New York Times, Eichenwald obtained documents which eluded the SEC and criminal prosecutors. Here he tells the shocking true story behind this scandal. Photos.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Eichenwald presents an appalling indictment of the firm's managers, who did dozens of deals with a convicted embezzler, spent millions of investors' dollars on lavish trips to places like Cancun and Maui and made cozy arrangements with developers to make themselves rich no matter how their clients fared. By the time readers finish this well-reported tale, they'll want to string Pru[dential]'s managers up by their power ties." -- Newsweek

"Eichenwald's account of the nearly decade-long fraud perpetrated by Prudential Bache Securities is both an entertaining and an important work." -- Publishers Weekly

Kurt Eichenwald, an award-winning financial reporter for The New York Times, tells the explosive story behind Wall Street's most destructive scandal of the 1980s -- the massive securities fraud perpetrated by Prudential Bache.

Serpent on the Rock is a real-life thriller more compelling than anything Grisham has dreamed up. It is a story of kickbacks and payoffs, of shady deals struck in secret with known felons; a story in which half a million people lose enormous sums -- some their life's savings -- and names like Onassis and Bush number among the victims. Since the scandal broke, Prudential Bache has been forced to pay out hundreds of millions in damages and virtually all of the firm's senior executives have been brought under investigation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887307205
• ISBN-13: 978-0887307201
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,043,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kurt Eichenwald has written about Wall Street for The New York Times since 1987. He began investigating the Prudential scandal in 1989 and, in 1993, took a leave from his daily Market Place column to investigate Prudential Bache full time. His efforts yielded Serpent on the Rock and a Publisher's Award from the Times.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great thriller, December 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Serpent on the Rock: Crime, Betrayal and the Terrible Secrets of Prudential Bache (Hardcover)

This is a story that I missed when it first came out -- but I went back to it after reading Eichenwald's new book, The Informant. This is fabulous -- full of twists and turns, a real legal thriller. The new book is better, but this one still kept me up late at night.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling and Topical, July 16, 2009

By 

Edward J. Barton (Tukwila, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a reminder of the potential excesses in the financial services space. And this was 20 years ago. Kurt Eichenwald does a great job of writing a "Grisham like" novel - except it is true.

The story revolves around the marketing and sale of limited partnership interests in various Prudential-Bache backed investments, and the rather questionable to downright illegal interactions among general partners, limited partners, investors and lenders. Sounds eerily similar to current news...

The book is a great read, very entertaining, and enlightening given the topic. Makes you wonder what financial product is next, since the cycle appears to continue unabated.

5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling and Topical, July 16, 2009

By 

Edward J. Barton (Tukwila, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a reminder of the potential excesses in the financial services space. And this was 20 years ago. Kurt Eichenwald does a great job of writing a "Grisham like" novel - except it is true.

The story revolves around the marketing and sale of limited partnership interests in various Prudential-Bache backed investments, and the rather questionable to downright illegal interactions among general partners, limited partners, investors and lenders. Sounds eerily similar to current news...

The book is a great read, very entertaining, and enlightening given the topic. Makes you wonder what financial product is next, since the cycle appears to continue unabated.