" Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker , NPR, Newsweek , The Economist, TIME, Slate, and WIRED Best Book of the Year The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds. After winning independence in 1957, Ghana instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that British colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas. Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece--if only you would “invest” in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices-including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general--scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers around the world. American prosecutors called his scam “one of the most fascinating--and lucrative--in modern history.” In Anansi's Gold , Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's wild trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call “history” writes itself into being, one lie at a time. Winner of the Jhalak Prize * Winner of the Plutarch Award for Biography * Finalist for the 2024 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award in Historical Nonfiction “Reading Anansi's Gold is like watching a heist movie . . . all about improvisation, unforced error, unlikely escape.” ― Dan Piepenbring, Harper's “An enthralling rags-to-stolen-riches story, a thrilling true-crime caper, and a sharp indictment of a world that allows scammers like Blay-Miezah to thrive.” ― TIME “Riveting.” ― New York Times Book Review “Skillfully interweaves archival material, F.B.I. records, and interviews to recount the saga of [a] con man's career, and to reflect on how lies can be leveraged in the creation of national histories.” ― The New Yorker “[T]his little-known story unfolds like Catch Me if You Can .” ― The Washington Post “The sprawling story of Blay-Miezah's outsize life and wayward career is told with mordant aplomb by first-time author Yepoka Yeebo … While [the book] reflects a daunting amount of research, it reads like a picaresque novel … Compelling.” ― The Wall Street Journal “A wild tale . . . Yeebo's substantial research - based on interviews, archives, government reports, and the like - is nothing less than awe inspiring, and her prose is careful and self-assured, often outraged, sometimes dryly amused . . . Anansi's Gold is a fascinating story brilliantly told.” ― The Boston Globe “ Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time.” ― NPR “In her thrilling new book, Yepoka Yeebo tells the jaw-dropping story of a man behind a scam called 'one of the most fascinating – and lucrative – in modern history' … the ever-proliferating grifter-lit bookshelf is on the verge of collapsing under its own weight, but Yeebo's contribution to the category stands out … meticulously researched.” ― The Guardian “A wild, juicy ride.” ― Los Angeles Times “Stylish and substantive, Yepoka Yeebo's Anansi's Gold is a non-fiction masterpiece, artfully weaving Blay-Miezah's remarkable exploits into the fabric of history. Highly recommended.” ― The Philadelphia Inquirer “Rigorously researched and beautifully written.” ― CrimeReads “In this absorbing true crime narrative, Yeebo details the fascinating story of this audacious con artist.” ― Town & Country “Absorbing . . . A colorful, eye-opening account.” ― Newsweek, Favorite Books of 2023 “Yeebo pulls off something near-magical here. She excavates an overlooked historical narrative as juicy as any true-crime blockbuster, where every detail is both fastidiously researched and completely over-the-top-one of Blay-Miezah's major adversaries in his quest to scam? Former child star Shirley Temple Black, of course!-while also conveying how the colonial system nurtured and turbo-charged this dysfunction.” ― Wired, Best Books of the Year “Yeebo seamlessly moves from the fun of a classic con-man yarn . . . to an equally engrossing history of the West African state and its rocky path to postcolonial independence. Her sharpest point: that Blay-Miezah succeed