Secret Empires

How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends

By: Peter Schweizer

Narrated by: Charles Constant

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Number one New York Times best seller!

America's top politicians have discovered the scam to end all scams.

Peter Schweizer has been fighting corruption - and winning - for years. In Throw Them All Out, he exposed insider trading by members of Congress, leading to the passage of the STOCK Act. In Extortion, he uncovered how politicians use mafia-like tactics to enrich themselves. And in Clinton Cash, he revealed the Clintons’ massive money machine and sparked an FBI investigation.

Now he explains how a new corruption has taken hold, involving larger sums of money than ever before. Stuffing tens of thousands of dollars into a freezer has morphed into multibillion-dollar equity deals done in the dark corners of the world.

An American bank opening in China would be prohibited by US law from hiring a slew of family members of top Chinese politicians. However, a Chinese bank opening in America can hire anyone it wants. It can even invite the friends and families of American politicians to invest in can’t-lose deals.

President Donald Trump’s children have made front pages across the world for their dicey transactions. However, the media has barely looked into questionable deals made by those close to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, and lesser-known politicians who have been in the game longer.

In many parts of the world, the children of powerful political figures go into business and profit handsomely, not necessarily because they are good at it, but because people want to curry favor with their influential parents. This is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. But for relatives of some prominent political families, we may already be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

Deeply researched and packed with shocking revelations, Secret Empires identifies public servants who cannot be trusted and provides a path toward a more accountable government.

©2018 Peter Schweizer (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Very enlightening

What did you like best about this story?

I found the book non partisan, which is important to me in these days of divisiveness. Conclusions were all backed up with facts. I'm surprised this is not getting more media attention. Great and easy read. Unfortunately, it makes me even more cynical of our process. Is it inevitable that all politicians become corrupt? Who are the good guys?

Every American Voter Needs to Hear This!

This definitely needed to be exposed! The author is right, we do need laws to protect us against these corrupt practices! The research was excessive and presented well, even for how data intensive much of the story is. I dinged the story a star because some of the numbers and other technical information can be a bit much for audio, but I do think it was written carefully to avoid it being too confusing. I do recommend this book, it is important for American tax payers and voters to know what alligators lurk in the swamp!

Sickening, Unreal....

I'm glad I stumbled across this book. The fact that we allow this to occur is absolutely repulsive. All of these shady tactics should be made illegal immediately and all of the enablers and perpetrators need to go to prison.

The need for transparency

The book outlines the problems in regards to our political “favors” when dealing with governments. I feel it is necessary for getting rid of the loop holes the politicians use including the use of family members in business that represents a laundry of money for favors.

please read. we all need to be aware of this

loved it. critical thinking 202. the issues in DC laid oit as facts. don't miss oit

it was balanced

It was well researched and honest. rare in today's political climate. Corruption is government. Government is Corruption.

Very disturbing

This will make the average taxpayer sick, I mean SICK! All this corruption widely known in those circles and nothing happens? Maybe if we had a real AG and another 6 1/2 years they could blow some of this up but I'm not very optimistic.

Eye opening

Wow, most making a living and raising a family have no idea of the corruption of government officials and their families and friends.

Absolutely Brilliant

Criticizes both Democrats and Republicans and their corrupt dealings. Power corrupts you regardless of political ideology.

Balanced Assessment of DC Corruption

This is a balanced look at how politicians amass fortunes based on thei4 Publix c life. There are Democrat and Republican examples. The author is a conservative and the accusations that he is one sided are clearly false. There is corruption on both sides. This book and his many others give "We the People" a way to begin to hold "them" accountable. Well layed out and narrator was serious in time but engaging.