Customer Reviews

Vesco: From Wall Street to Castro's Cuba The Rise, Fall, and Exile of the King of White Collar Crime

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The book is about as good as any book could be, given the secrecy in which its main subject operated. It never gives the reader any clarity about why Vesco committed the crimes that made him famous (he could have made just about as much money legally, and would not have ended up in jail in Cuba as a result.) But in a case where little is known about what precisely happened, it is unfair to expect Herzog to explain why it happened. Anyway, this is the only book on Mr. Vesco that discusses his later career, and it sorely deserves an update. Required reading for any scholars of 1970s finance or Wall Street scandals.

VESCO:FROM WALL STREET TO CASTRO'S CUBA by Arthur Herzog is a riveting study of while-collar criminal, Robert Vesco, accused by the Securities Exchange Commission of looting Bernard Cornfeld's Investor's Overseas Service (IOS) of 425 million in 1986. Vesco fled the USA before he was brought to trial, presumably, taking the money with him. The ingredients of "game playing", secretiveness, manipulation, bravado, and a "slippery streak" mixed with a more than usual dose of greed and chutzpah is the foundation of the Vesco legend.
Herzog looks at his ambitious childhood in Detroit, his early marriage at seventeen, and his knack of losing jobs. After awhile Vesco decides to start his own businesses, ultimately creating wealthy conglomerates. But Vesco did not work alone; he sought out and persuaded powerful, wealthy men to join him in his various get-rich schemes. After he left the country, he still had a line to the best attorneys to represent him and to powerful politicians to protect him, as he hop-scotched around the Caribbean--Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Antigua, and eventually Castro's Cuba. It is here that Herzog catches up with the fugitive financier and gets the first interview ever with him. Ironically, Herzog's last question, "Bob, was it all worth it?" is left unanswered as Vesco scurries away.
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Beyond the obvious research the author has done on the subject; he has painted a picture of one of those men in history who lived a colorful life at possibly the wong time. In today's world Robert Vesco would probably be a hero.

Robert Vesco was a latter-day robber baron who looted his own company and then fled the U.S. when the Feds tried to imprison him. For about 35 years, Vesco lived in exile with his dwindling fortune - always one step ahead of Uncle Sam. Arthur Herzog tells this story in Vesco. While the material is there for a great book, Herzog cannot quite deliver the goods.

Herzog's book has two very distinct parts: first he tells the story of Vesco's business career and then he covers Vesco's life abroad. The first part of the book is dull and overly complex. Herzog includes very little about Vesco's early life in Detroit and the reader wants to know more. Even worse is the account of Vesco's business dealings, about which Herzog goes into far too much detail.

The second part of the book is better. Once he became a fugitive, Vesco led a bizarre life. He lived in Antigua, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, and Cuba; other than Cuba, no one really wanted Vesco, so he constantly bribed officials to avoid being expelled or extradited. Herzog does a good job of examining Vesco's life on the lam and of describing each place that Vesco lived.

Vesco created intrigue wherever he went, so readers enjoy some great stories. Herzog tells of Vesco's interactions with dozens of colorful characters including Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, womanizing investor Bernard Cornfeld, Costa Rican President Jose Figueres, and Bahamian Prime Minister Lynden Pindling. Another entertaining section of the book concerns the U.S. government's (unsuccessful) plans to get Vesco back in the U.S. Unfortunately, the book ends in 1987 and does not discuss Vesco's trial in Cuba for drug trafficking or his 2007 death.

In the end, I'm ambivalent about Vesco. The story is fantastic, but Herzog doesn't do it justice. Too often the reader has to slog through it. If you enjoy reading about business chicanery, Vesco is a decent read.

No doubt, lots of work went into this book. It is very detailed. Vesco led a secret life, so the first 75% of the book deals with the complicated web of financial transactions that lead up to the interesting stuff, stealing 225million dollars. Very hard to follow, I found myself skipping over pages over and over again just trying to get through some of the painfully boring, hard to follow parts. Not much on Vescos personal life, which is understandable. I am traveling around Latin America, spent months in Costa Rica. He is legend there among local people. Thought it would be a good beach read, was wrong. I apologize to the author because there was so much research done to write this. If you are a coke bottle reading glasses kind of dork, you might find the details somewhat interesting. If you do though, please consider killing yourself.

I would love to meet and greet the person the book is about. It is as if he has left no stone unturned. Mr. Vesco if you can read this please call me @ 1-313-577-6951. Thanks Carole McCormick.