Book Talk. Crude Intentions: How Oil Corruption Contaminates the World by Alexandra Gillies

Join for a talk with Alexandra Gillies about her new book, Crude Intentions: How Oil Corruption Contaminates the World (Oxford University Press, January 2020).

Crude Intentions examines the corruption crisis that erupted during the 2008 to 2014 oil boom, when nine trillion dollars in new money flooded the oil-producing world. Observing the oil boom is like placing a drop of dye in the circulatory system of global corruption, and watching as it reveals the system’s channels and pathways. Company bosses signed off on risky schemes to snap up choice oil blocks. Politicians in Brazil and Nigeria stole billions to build up their election war chests. Political strongmen in Angola, Azerbaijan, and Russia seized upon the oil wealth to cement their hold on power. And an army of bankers, accountants, and lawyers lined up to help corrupt actors stash their loot in the global system of shell companies and tax havens that serves today’s super-rich

Drawing on information exposed by journalists, prosecutors, and whistle blowers, Crude Intentions tells stories that reveal common tactics, but also common vulnerabilities in this web of fraud. These are the starting points for building a smarter fight against corruption, in the oil sector and well beyond.

“Alexandra Gillies has written an essential primer on the new world order, in which kleptocrats are hijacking the global economy. From Goldman Sachs to Goodluck Jonathan, Rosneft to the Republican Party, Gillies shows us how the corruption pandemic has spread worldwide. Her book pulses with a spirit not of despair but of action: don’t let them get away with it.”

—Tom Burgis, author of The Looting Machine

 “In this gripping, deeply-informed book, Gillies reveals the intricate deceptions, unwitting enablers, and extravagant fraud that has turned oil into staggering wealth, power, and corruption.”

—Michael Ross, professor of political science, UCLA, and author of The Oil Curse

Alexandra Gillies is an advisor at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a not-for-profit group. She has worked to promote transparency and combat corruption in the oil sector for more than ten years. Gillies holds a PhD in international relations from the University of Cambridge, where she researched the politics of Nigeria’s oil sector. She lives in New York City.