This tells of the deception carried out by one man against major financial institutions, government departments and 18,000 private investors. How did Peter Clowes do it? What motivated him to divert tens of millions of pounds away from the safe investment of gilts to feed his extravagant lifestyle and extraordinary ambition? After Peter Clowes was arrested, an enormous political outcry opened against the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) which had licenced Barlow Clowes to deal with public queries regarding the affair. The case was examined by the Ombudsman, whose criticism of the DTI led to an unprecedented #150 million handout to the investors from central funds. This book is written by a former Assistant Editor of The Times and current Financial Editor of the Mail on Sunday, who carried out his own research to provide the foundations of this book.