DARK MONEY AND PRIVATE SPIES

A man recounts his attempts to expose a bank’s financing of terrorism in this memoir.

In 2010, Stern began working for HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world, as a compliance officer tasked with identifying evidence of money laundering. But he immediately realized that his superiors had no interest in exposing criminal deeds. According to the author, since the bank profited immensely from the terrorist activities it financed, it was motivated to consistently turn a blind eye while offering government regulators a perfunctory show of diligence. Stern could not abide this dark arrangement and decided to conduct his “own personal war” against the bank’s moral complacency and contacted the FBI, CIA, and various journalists in order to make HSBC accountable. At one point, he even decided to run, albeit unsuccessfully, for the United States Senate in an effort to spark some grander changes and wage a “war against apathy” in America. In the end, Stern’s efforts were not in vain—HSBC was fined nearly $2 billion for its negligence, though no one was imprisoned. The author explains with accessible lucidity the ins and outs of money laundering as well as his impressive attempts to oppose it. But his informative account is a meandering one, less about his whistleblowing at HSBC and more about his indefatigable commitment to justice, a moral mission that he continually discusses. In an odd episode, he recounts being inspired by his pet rabbit: “The moment Einstein jumped up onto my lap, I realized what I was really fighting for. It wasn’t solely about HSBC. I was fighting a battle for good.” In this chronicle, Stern regales readers with rambling treatments of his philosophizing and lecturing. Still, the author should be commended for what he did while at HSBC.

An illuminating but uneven account about a determined whistleblower.