"Over a fourteen-year period from 1999 to 2013, one hedge fund carried out out an investment strategy utilizing hundreds of millions of trades, virtually all of which lasted less than 12 months, and characterized the vast majority of the resulting $34 billion in trading profits as long-term capital gains ... resulting in estimated tax avoidance of more than $6 billion."- Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, United States Senate, 2014 This publicly recorded statement exposes the shocking truth about how Wall Street, and the billionaire class, have continued to manipulate and exploit the financial system, taking advantage of loop holes to pull the wool over the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Routing some of this `dirty money' into the election campaign coffers of various presidential candidates provides them with access to the levers of power in Washington D.C.. The 2016 U.S. presidential election has seen a lot of attention focused on this 'corrupt' political campaign finance system. It's time the real truth emerged. Using this watershed 2016 election as the context, this book makes a candid analysis of the campaign contributions to various presidential candidates across three presidential election cycles (2008, 2012 and 2016) to trace the total flow of 'dirty money' from its source to those presidential campaigns. While America has typically been allowed to see just the tip of iceberg so far, 'Dirty Money, ' reveals the dirty money trail it in its entirety, making available previously hidden information on the top donors in each presidential election cycle, and the beneficiaries of their vast contributions. If you believe in democracy, at all, this is a must read.
About the Author: Ramesh S Arunachalam wears many hats. He is an Engineer (REC Trichy, 1984/5) and MBA (Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA, 1988) by training. In the last 25 years, he has been a columnist (with the Hindu Business Line and Moneylife), a filmmaker, an entrepreneur and also a development practitioner/strategic advisor working on issues pertaining to the financial sector regulation and supervision, financial inclusion, microfinance, livelihoods and MSMEs, ERP systems for microfinance, urban development, infrastructure financing, GIS for urban planning and e Governance. Ramesh's company, Shruthikkaa Films has produced and showcased three films including the National Award Winning Kutty (2001). His latest film, Yeh Hai Bakrapur had a successful all India and global premiere in 2014. It was especially well recognized for its very innovative marketing - using the Kaun Banega PM mobile game (with over 42000 downloads) and other eclectic strategies - in taking feature films to the masses. During the last 28 years, Ramesh has worked in over 260 professional assignments across 560 districts of India. He has also traveled and worked extensively in over 25 countries globally across diverse projects (in senior positions). He is passionate about his work and brings strong inter-disciplinary insight to his assignments. His clients include governments (Governments of India, St Lucia, Singapore, Malawi, Uganda, Philippines etc, several State Governments in India and many GoI Institutions like NCRPB, SIDBI, NABARD etc), bi-lateral agencies (DFID, USAID, DANIDA, NORAD, SIDA etc), multi-lateral agencies (UNDP, World Bank, ADB, IFAD, etc), regulators, commercial banks, investment banks etc, microfinance institutions, private sector firms and several other stakeholders across Asia, Africa, North America, Europe and the Caribbean. He has authored numerous reports/studies as part of his assignments.