The Wealth Hoarders How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions

For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defence Industry. These ‘agents of inequality’ are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01%. 

In this book, inequality expert Chuck Collins, who himself inherited a fortune, interviews the leading players and gives a unique insider account of how this industry is doing everything it can to create and entrench hereditary dynasties of wealth and power. He exposes the inner workings of these “agents of inequality”, showing how they deploy anonymous shell companies, family offices, offshore accounts, opaque trusts, and sham transactions to ensure the world’s richest pay next to no tax. He ends by outlining a robust set of policies that democratic nations can implement to shut down the Wealth Defence Industry for good. 

This shocking exposé of the insidious machinery of inequality is essential reading for anyone wanting the inside story of our age of plutocratic plunder and stashed cash.

CHUCK COLLINS is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he directs the Program on Inequality and coedits Inequality.org. His previous books include Born on Third Base and Wealth and Our Commonwealth (with Bill Gates Sr.)

Table of contents:Acknowledgements

Foreword: Nicholas Shaxson

Prelude 1983: Discovering the Money River

Prelude 2004: The Blue Hippo Swindle

Prelude 2020: The Theft of Angola

Introduction

Chapter 1: The High Cost of Hidden Wealth

Chapter 2: Who Are the Wealth Defenders?

Chapter 3: Tools in the Wealth Hiding Toolbox

Chapter 4: All in the Family Office

Chapter 5: The Wealth Hiding in Your Neighborhood

Chapter 6: Directly Engaging the Wealth Defense Industry

Chapter 7:  Solutions to Wealth Hiding

Conclusion: A Time for Bold Action

Epilogue: Grads, Don’t Work for the Billionaire Wealth Defense Industry

Reading and Resource List

Notes