"Taub explicitly and persuasively places the breakdown of enforcement and accountability in the context of money and class."-- The New York Times

How the affluent and powerful exploit tax havens and legal loopholes to enrich themselves at the expense of regular Americans, and how this may be stopped.

America is experiencing an elite crime wave, and wealthy criminals are getting away with it. If you are not in the top 1% of sellers, selling loose cigarettes on a public sidewalk can result in a chokehold arrest and even death. However, you will probably get away with it (or even win an election) if you are wealthy and engage in bank, mail, or wire fraud, embezzlement of pension funds, lying in court, obstructing justice, bribing a public official, money laundering, or tax evasion. High-class offenders spend short stays in minimal security "Club Fed" camps after being apprehended and found guilty, such as when they bribe their children's way into college. Manage the con from the top floor of a massive company, and you can make a lot of money without being caught. Let us examine Wells Fargo & Co. Under pressure from management, bank staff established over three million credit card and bank accounts without the approval of customers, and they assessed late fees and penalties to the account holders. After CEO John Stumpf submitted his resignation letter in "shame," the board of directors gave him a golden parachute worth $134 million.

This crime is not without victims. In Big Dirty Money, the wealthy and powerful describe the shockingly real and tangible harm that befalls normal people when they turn to white-collar crime as a means of acquiring and maintaining riches, social standing, and political power. Profiteers are to blame for the mortgage crisis and the prescription drug abuse epidemic. They have also avoided paying taxes and denied communities access to public funding for infrastructure, public health, and education. Beyond the headlines, which abound, Taub tracks how we arrived at this point (basically, a post-Enron collapse of prosecutorial muscle, the emergence of the "too big to jail" syndrome, and the upper class's growing implicit immunity) and offers remedies that can help apprehend and convict offenders.