RSKY BZNS by Paul Illidge

New English Review Press is pleased to announce the publication of our forty-third title, RSKY BZNS by Paul Illidge.

In the footsteps of Catch Me If You Can and The Wolf of Wall Street . . .

RSKY BZNS is the incredible true story of the charming rogue swindler John James Illidge, whose proclivity for investment fraud culminates in a $100 million con of several dozen unsuspecting clients (among them his own mother and wife) who never saw a dime of their money again.

On the run, Illidge flees to his older brother Paul’s house, living with him and his three children for the next six months, during which time Paul, a writer and investigative journalist—who has been keeping track of his brother’s exploits for years—begins documenting the ongoing frauds, aiding and abetting them, or so it seems, by typing up John’s stock agreements on his computer, then proposing a plan to his brother whereby he would impersonate John, fly to the Cayman Islands and retrieve $7 million, $5 million going to John, $2 million to Paul for his services.

Fearing the authorities may be closing in, the impersonation plan is put on hold when John moves out suddenly to live with his girlfriend in another city. His way of saying thanks to his brother for the free hospitality? Setting him up in a car fraud that will send him to jail for five years if caught. He gets caught.

RSKY BZNS is the book Paul Illidge writes describing his brother’s crimes, both business and personal, in order to come up with an answer to the questions people are continually asking: What made your brother go bad? Why is he leading a life of crime? What will it take to stop him?

Advance Praise for RSKY BZNS:

RSKY BZNS is a most interesting and fascinating read. It demonstrates vividly and accurately how fraud and conning can become addictive, dangerous, and destructive unless the con man changes his life. If he doesn’t, the consequences for all concerned are tragic.
— Frank Abagnale, Jr., author of Catch Me If You Can

A gripping and intricate read; an interesting contemporary story of financial skullduggery, with several diverting flourishes—very pleasantly written.
—Conrad Black, author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, A President Like No Other: Donald J. Trump and the Restoring of America, and Flight of the Eagle, a Strategic History of the United States

In his one-of-a-kind memoir/detective story, Paul Illidge doggedly unravels the darkly seductive, labyrinthine schemes of a consummate con man, made all the more compelling by the fact his quarry is his own younger brother. Leading us to a disturbing, stranger than fiction, Rosebud-like revelation, his exposé not only performs a tour de force of personal tenacity but an act of public service.
—James FitzGerald, author of What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son’s Quest to Redeem the Past, winner of the 2010 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize

Paul Illidge’s new book, RSKY BZNS, is an insider’s view of a Bernie Madoff-like series of financial frauds and their mounting fallout. Illidge might have another hit on his hands with this well-crafted, fast-paced exploration of Ponzi schemes, the securities industry, and the perplexities of intergenerational mental illness.
—Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun author and journalist