The Despot's Guide to Wealth Management

This book deals capably with government efforts to combat local scams, such as the massive Petrobras "car wash" affair in Brazil, and their contamination of global finance. It deals sequentially with efforts in the US, Switzerland, the UK, and Australia to combat kleptocracy—sometimes effective and sometimes not—often stymied by middlemen who like things the way they are. The book is well written and concise.

~I. Walter, New York University, Choice

A major and important exercise in scrupulously-researched, brilliantly-documented and eloquently-expressed scholarship.... This is an extremely important book. For those who worry about "globalisation from above," it provides plenty of empirical evidence and analysis to show that the whole global financial structure desperately needs root and branch cleaning.

~Australian Institute of International Affairs

Sharman... is particularly interested in 'grand corruption': the theft of national wealth by kleptocratic leaders and their cronies, often in poor (albeit resource-rich) countries. It is a subject he knows well.

~The Economist

The book’s strength derives from its avoidance of the common error of reading history backwards; looking for the particular characteristics of the present in the past. [Sharman] shows that, contrary to what many might assume, international corruption was not always a pressing concern. On the contrary, it was only in the 1990s that western leaders started discussing it in earnest.

~Financial Times

The book introduces the global anti-corruption regime - which has emerged from new international norms - and specifically focuses on combating kleptocracy.... Sharman's thinking prompts a discussion where 'liberalism' (the belief that economic prosperity promotes the rule of law, democratic values and social justice) is both the architect and victim of corruption.

~RUSI Journal