Penguin Business signs 'incredible' story of investor Arif Naqvi

Penguin Business has signed The Key Man, the “incredible” story of globetrotting investor Arif Naqvi’s downfall, by Simon Clark and Will Louch.

Commissioning editor Lydia Yadi bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Grainne Fox and Fletcher and Co. The Key Man: How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale will be published on 8th July 2021.

The book follows Naqvi, an investor who raised billions of dollars from the global elite, including Barack Obama's government, Bill and Melinda Gates’ foundation and the British and French governments, saying he would invest the funds into developing economies. In 2019, as he stepped off a plane at Heathrow airport, Naqvi was arrested on charges of fraud and racketeering. He now faces up to 291 years in jail if found guilty, accused of embezzling $385m from investors and his company, the Abraaj Group.

Tipped off by an anonymous source in 2018, British journalists Clark and Louch began to investigate Abraaj and Naqvi himself. The publisher said: “The Key Man is a page-turning story of investigative journalism at its finest, complete with secret meetings, leaked documents and runway arrests. It offers a window into the secretive and conflicted world of the Davos elite, a world populated by powerful leaders and billionaires who talk publicly about making the world a better place. It will thrill readers of Bad Blood, McMafia and Moneyland.”

Clark is a Wall Street Journal reporter based in London. His investigative reporting has led him to the poppy fields of Afghanistan, the copper mines of Congo and to many banks in the City of London. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016.

Louch is at law school in London. He was previously a Wall Street Journal reporter covering private equity in London and New York. Before that, he was based in Brussels where he wrote about European politics.

Yadi said: “Arif Naqvi was a man with immeasurable dreams: to end world suffering, poverty and disease. His vision: capitalism for good; profit and progress. But somewhere along the way, Arif lost sight of good. Charged with misappropriating eye-watering sums dedicated to making the world a better place, the Arif seen behind closed doors became very different from the Arif the world saw. This is an incredible story, brilliantly told by Simon Clark and Will Louch who have led the investigation into Arif at the Wall Street Journal. I’m delighted to be working with them on this gripping tale of greed, chicanery and tarnished idealism.”