The Pretender: How Martin Frankel Fooled the Financial World and Led the Feds on One of the Most Publicized Manhunts in History
Author: Ellen Joan Pollock
List Price: $25.00
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ISBN: 0743204158
Publisher: Free Press (01 January, 2002)
Sales Rank: 27,090
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Astonishing
Anyone familiary with Ellen Joan Pollock's life and work, her history with Steve Brill and American Lawyer Magazine knows in their heart that this is the book she was born to write. For the story of Marty Frankel, ultimately a rather small time swindler from Toledo Ohio of all places is really bigger than this sick moron's life. On the surface one might think this is just another tale of a stock trading scam artist who if he hadn't fled the country and made us authorities find him would barely have made the papers. But this is such a degrading and astonishingly bizarre account of a lifestyle that one wouldn't really think could exist is civilized society. It is a condemnation of the internet culture where women can be purchased, bound, abused and discarded. It is a condemnation of the greed that allowed even lawyers at such a firm as akin gump, supposedl one of the top law firms in the country, to lend its imprimatur to a scumbag, as long as the scumbag had the money for a retainer and they didnt care where it came from. it is the story of loose regulation and of crimes that can go because authorities can either be bought up, lobbied out, or are just too busy harrassing innocent people to care about an actual thief. These are gigantic themes in the hands of a master craftsman of gossip and innuendo, a woman known for hiding behind pillars to get her information. When Ellen Pollock says she has interviewed 400 people, you know she has. You see it in the detail of every page which you leaves you wondering- how did she learn that. Her audacity in telling the entire story, even though small minded superiors urged caution is a giant reward for the reader. For days after I finished reading the Pretender, I wondered why we should care about this guy. He is so moronic, so Toledo, and yet rolls along. Does he deserve a book ? He doesn't deserve anything but years in a Taliban prison, he is now serving time in Connecticut. One expects he will be back with a new scam. That will be good news if it results in Pollack being back on his tail.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Completely intriguing and appalling
Here's a fast moving book that I read before the Enron story broke. It was hard to put down as it is truly amazing that Frankel got away with so much, for so long. In the vein of truth is stranger than fiction, here's the story of a white collar crime that was much too easy. This book shows that the ways in which small town prejudice, day to day Jewish stereotyping and the acceptance that weird equals smart is ultimately more perverse that Frankel's own interest in S&M. Certainly, these all too human blind spots allowed him to carry on for a very long time. The book carefully traces the idiosyncratic and twisted path of a guy who scammed everyone, while building his own personal money-for-nothing empire. Now, re-reading this book, post Enron, his bogus financial statements seem to be just another product of the 'new math.'
Rating: 1 out of 5
ANNOYING.
WHAT AN ANNOYING SCREWHEAD. I keep trying to read this book and have given up. Frankel's lying is one thing, but good Lord, his inability to actually consumate a trade (or anything else, evidently) is BEYOND annoying and makes for frustrating reading. At 2 bucks for a used copy, it's overpriced. Similar Products
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