My review of The Trillion Dollar Conman was published on my blog at www.equinoxx.info on Tuesday 19 November 2024. Thank you to Net Galley and Icon Books for allowing me to read and review it.

Here's what I wrote:

When Sven-Goran Eriksson passed away a few months ago, my father and I conversed about the clubs the Swede had coached. After mentioning the obvious ones I could recall like Manchester City, Leicester City and the England and Ivory Coast national teams, my father added 'he was also involved with a lower division club, wasn't he?'

I had actually forgotten all about Sven's time as director of football at Notts County. My dad triggered a memory of being stunned at the appointment and the controversy which occurred after it.

And then I moved on from reminding myself about back in the day.

Last week, I once again found myself facing the 'Sven at Notts County' story when I was looking for a book to read on Net Galley. I came across a title in the sports section which intrigued me. I instantly asked to be able to read a copy.

The Trillion Dollar Conman: The Astonishing True Story of the Most Audacious Fraud in Sport by Ben Robinson covers Notts County's sale to a consortium which included Russell King - a businessman who had spent time in prison for fraud.

King was able to bring Eriksson to Notts County as director. This move ultimately led to the club signing Sol Campbell and Kasper Schmeichel. All three, in their own way, were newsworthy signings considering Notts County - even though it was a historic club - was playing its games in the English League 2.

Robinson's work documents everything that went down with the Magpies during that period. But, there is a lot more to the story than that.

A heck of a lot.

The Trillion Dollar Conman spotlights all the scams Russell King was involved with. These range from trying to get himself involved with Formula One racing as an owner, being behind a failed bid of Newcastle United and then - in his last batch of cons - fleecing a bunch of companies overseas to advertising revenue by falsely claiming to publish culture and travel magazines in the Middle East.

And more.

I was stunned at the chutzpah which was displayed by King in all of the schemes he carried out. Every few page turns resulted in me either shaking my head or having to lift my jaw after it dropped. There were so many twists unravelled by the author.

Robinson has done an excellent job with concise research into this stunning story. It truly was, as the subtitle indicates, audacious.

And then some.

Some true stories are far stranger than fiction and this is most certainly one of them.

Journalist and avid Notts County fan has written a forensically detailed and well researched account of the take over of his club by a mystery Middle Eastern syndicate which promised to take a struggling fourth tier team to the dizzy heights of the Premier League.

Money was splurged on big name signings and staff but as they say - there’s no such thing as a free lunch and if something looks too good to be true it generally is.

The money never existed and the club was drained by conman supreme Russell King who left a trail of misery and bankruptcies behind him in places such as Jersey, Bahrain and even North Korea.

Thanks to the dogged persistence of financial journalists and victims of his scams he finally got his comeuppance- but far too little too late.

The book is fascinating and far reaching and tells a salutary tale of greed and naivety.

Highly recommended.