Anansi's Gold

A debut by a ferociously talented journalist with total claim on her material: Yepoka Yeebo has reported this book across many years and three continents, reviewing thousands of pages of government files on Blay-Miezah and earning the trust of his victims as well as some of his collaborators. Her heroic efforts to seek the truth of this story can generate coverage on their own, and as an Anglo-Ghanaian journalist with deep connections in West Africa, she has unimpeachable authority to tell it.

Yepoka Yeebo's work has appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, the Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek and Quartz, among other publications. A graduate of Queen Mary, University of London and of Columbia University's School of Journalism, she divides her time between Accra, London and New York. Anansi's Gold is her first book.

Fabulously entertaining . . . like all good biographies of artists, Yeebo's book conveys the uniqueness of his personality while also showing how his art was forged in, and fed the requirements of, the times in which he lived
This astonishing book reveals not just Ghana's history as you've never read it before, but some of the most important global events of the twentieth century. An impressive feat
In her thrilling new book, Yepoka Yeebo tells the jaw-dropping story of a man behind a scam called 'one of the most fascinating - and lucrative - in modern history' . . . meticulously researched
The remarkable story of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, a charismatic Ghanaian huckster who for two decades masterminded what she plausibly calls "one of the greatest con artists of all time" . . . The book is crisp and well-told, brimming with vivid scenes and colourful writing
This compelling story of a charismatic conman who fooled thousands . . . This is a glorious tale of greed, exploited by an astonishingly brazen fraudster
Blay-Miezah is a contender for the world's greatest con artist . . . Ms Yeebo had to dig tenaciously to reveal the full story . . . Anansi's Gold is a welcome, if belated, addition to the canon on great swindlers
As Yepoka Yeebo makes clear in her richly entertaining account of [Blay-Miesah's] rise and fall, he combined charisma and a silver tongue, attracting both the greedy and the idealistic . . . She has a sharp eye for droll detail and is especially successful in evoking the two decades that followed independence - a glitzy but sleazy world of nightclubs and casinos "where the champagne flowed, even when the electricity did not"
Journalist Yeebo brilliantly illuminates the stranger-than-fiction career of Ghanaian fraudster John Ackah Blay-Miezah (1941-1992) in this thrilling true-crime account . . . Yeebo's details and research are beyond meticulous, and she spins her central con artist into a charismatic lead. This is perfect for fans of Frank Abignale Jr.'s Catch Me If You Can
Anansi's Gold is an unflinching look at history that illuminates both the past and the present. It is meticulously and impressively researched. This book is sharply written and is a highly engaging and readable account of Blay-Miezah's life, of politics and society in Ghana, and of the rapaciousness and cruelty of colonization and of external involvement in Africa. An essential work of history by a great writer
Reading Anansi's Gold is like watching a heist movie in agonising slow motion. It's all about improvisation, unforced error, unlikely escape
This captivating story of a gifted con artist and his international network of abettors is not only a sheer pleasure to read, but also a profound inquiry into how a lie can become a legend. Yepoka Yeebo's tenacious reporting and relentless pursuit of the truth are nothing short of heroic
This début by a ferociously talented journalist draws on years of reporting as it tells the "astounding", hitherto untold story of ingenious Ghanaian con artist John Ackah Blay-Miezah
Anansi's Gold is as gripping as a heist movie, with a sparkling cast and a plot that is stranger than fiction. Yepoka Yeebo tells a tale from another time, but in an era of fake news and too-good-to-be-true cryptocurrency scams, it feels thrillingly contemporary
Even as [Yeebo] catches readers up in what often reads like a breathless caper, the author takes care to ground them in what matters most: Ghana and its sadly 'fragile' history . . . Utterly absorbing
This hugely important and riveting book tells a true story of avarice and ambition that is centred on Ghana but reveals a web of lies and deceit on a vast international scale. At the heart of this utterly compelling narrative is a theme of real urgency today: the political and social dangers and the terrible harm caused by the deliberate falsification of the past
Yepoka Yeebo has achieved something truly remarkable, brilliantly reframing the independence era under Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, while vividly illuminating the tawdriness of its aftermath with an unforgettable tale of corruption. This is African history and storytelling of the first order
In this absorbing true crime narrative, Yeebo details the fascinating story of this audacious con artist
Chases an infamous Ghanian conman, John Ackah Blay-Miezah, who pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running frauds, living in luxury, fooling everyone, and making millions, all while evading the FBI for years. How long until this book becomes an HBO miniseries starring Isiah Whitlock Jr? Only time will tell
As Yeebo reveals in elegant prose, bringing complex detail, vivid background colour and an extensive cast into her compelling narrative, the Oman Ghana Trust Fund never existed and the tale of Nkrumah's secret offshore fortune was a lie
Well-researched and engaging, [Anansi's Gold] draws readers into the intricate web of lies about a trust-fund tall tale that spanned throughout the 1970s and '80s and across the globe. Readers who enjoy true crime and stories about cons will quickly be absorbed into Yeebo's first book
In the 1970s and '80s, John Ackah Blay-Miezah and his accomplices - including Richard Nixon's former attorney general John Mitchell - fooled people into investing hundreds of millions of dollars in an alleged Ghanaian trust fund. One of the greatest con men ever, Blay-Miezah lived in luxury and eluded authorities across the globe. Here his little-known story unfolds like Catch Me if You Can
Dr. John Ackah Blay-Miezah told investors he could access Kwame Nkrumah's Oman Ghana Trust Fund, billions of dollars the country's first president had supposedly funneled to Swiss banks. He was a classic fraudster, neither a doctor nor operating under his real name. But Ghanaian journalist Yeebo takes it to another level, tracing Blay-Miezah's scams to the lies of British colonial administrators who toppled Nkrumah. It's a juicy, wild ride
Stylish and substantive, Yepoka Yeebo's Anansi's Gold is a non-fiction masterpiece, artfully weaving Blay-Miezah's remarkable exploits into the fabric of history. Highly recommended
Yepoka Yeebo's riveting Anansi's Gold traces the outlines of Blay-Miezah's life, shedding light on how he perpetrated his deceptions for years while living in incredible opulence. The author delves into archives across the Atlantic, digs up criminal proceedings and conducts interviews with victims and associates alike, in the process telling us not just about Blay-Miezah, but about the world that enabled him to thrive
An expansive true crime chronicle
The sprawling story of Blay-Miezah's outsize life and wayward career is told with mordant aplomb by first-time British-Ghanaian author Yepoka Yeebo . . . While Anansi's Gold reflects a daunting amount of research, it reads like a picaresque novel
Yepoka Yeebo tells the fascinating story of the person she calls "perhaps the greatest con man of the twentieth century" - and it's a wild tale indeed, brought to life by Yeebo's intricate research and compelling prose . . . Yeebo does a phenomenal job explaining how one lie took on a life of its own, one that still hasn't ended. Yeebo's substantial research . is nothing less than awe inspiring, and her prose is careful and self-assured, often outraged, sometimes dryly amused. Anansi's Gold is a fascinating story brilliantly told
[A] thrilling true-crime debut that reverberates on the world stage . . . a story that any writer of heist flicks would envy . . . Readers will devour the gripping story of a lie that became a country's founding myth
Through meticulous and shrewd reporting, Yeebo breaks down the many reasons why Blay-Miezah's claims were too enticing for even the most sophisticated marks to ignore . . . Anansi's Gold is an enthralling rags-to-stolen-riches story, a thrilling true-crime caper, and a sharp indictment of a world that allows scammers like Blay-Miezah to thrive
This is the story of one of the world's greatest, but least famous, con artists. Ghana's John Ackah Blay-Miezah bilked investors on several continents by promising he knew the location of lost gold. Exhaustive reporting by the author makes this a riveting and welcome addition to the canon on super-swindlers