Anansi's Gold

Starred review from May 15, 2023
Journalist Yeebo brilliantly illuminates the stranger-than-fiction career of Ghanaian fraudster John Ackah Blay-Miezah (1941–1992) in this thrilling true-crime account. The opening section, set in 1974, showcases Blay-Miezah’s incredible brazenness: despite being in prison for fraud, he arranged to be brought from his cell to a meeting with Ghana’s military ruler, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. With Ghana drowning in debt, Acheampong was eager to accept Blay-Miezah’s claim that the country’s deceased first president had concealed millions in Swiss bank vaults and put him in charge of the funds; all Blay-Miezah needed to boost Ghana’s battered economy was his freedom and a diplomatic passport. After getting both, he spent decades scamming deep-pocketed investors into helping him “rescue” that nonexistent trust fund so they could grab a piece for themselves. The prismatic narrative features appearances by child actor–turned–diplomat Shirley Temple and former Nixon attorney general John Mitchell, whose consulting firm was hired by Blay-Miezah to give the fund a veneer of respectability. When investors got cold feet, Mitchell would call to offer reassurances that returns were on their way. 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. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency.

July 1, 2023

British Ghanian journalist Yeebo tells the story of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, one of the world's most prolific con artists, who tricked many people worldwide into giving him their money. His scheme started in the 1970s after the death of Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, who was falsely accused of hiding all the country's gold overseas. The book shows that Blay-Miezah convinced people not only that Nkrumah had left a secret trust fund to help Ghanaian people but also that the Ghanaian president had entrusted him to disburse it. Blay-Miezah convinced investors to buy into the fake trust fund, worth an alleged $47 billion, by telling them that they too could have a portion of the funds but that giving money was the only way to access the money, stashed in the United Bank of Switzerland. VERDICT This book, well-researched and engaging, 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.--Leah Fitzgerald

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2023
For two decades, a Ghanaian con man surfed a wave of lies and luck, living large on multiple continents while swindling "millions upon millions of dollars." "This is a story of how lies change history," writes Ghanaian journalist Yeebo. The lies at the center of her story are those of Dr. John Ackah Blay-Miezah, whose name and title were both lies. He claimed to hold the key to the (nonexistent) Oman Ghana Trust Fund, billions of dollars supposedly spirited out of Ghana by its first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and held in Swiss banks, ensnaring investors in a classic fraud. Yeebo makes clear that Blay-Miezah's lies were founded on other lies--first those of the British colonizers, who "siphoned off over 150 million pounds" that were to have been held in reserve pending independence, and then those of the U.S. and British governments, which helped engineer the 1966 coup that toppled Nkrumah. The racism that underlay these actions also propelled many of Blay-Miezah's investors, who "saw [him] spinning a tale about darkest Africa, untold wealth, and a corrupt leader....[T]he story--and the man--fit their preconceptions like a dovetail joint." The great tragedy, writes the author, is that Blay-Miezah's lies have become one of Ghana's foundational myths. It's an incredible story, told with muscular acerbity and populated by secondary characters as compelling as the leading man. There's the diplomat duo of Shirley Temple Black, U.S. ambassador to Ghana, and Ebenezer Moses Debrah, Ghana's former ambassador to the U.S.; Gladys Blay-Miezah, Blay-Miezah's second wife, whose ability to track down her philandering husband earned her the nickname Columbo; and Joe Appiah, who successfully prosecuted Blay-Miezah in Ghanaian court only to see him freed after a brutal coup. Even as she 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.

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