Flip through some pages
Bank of 'America' was just fined 1.3 billion...and not a single arrest.
That's a comment from under one of our videos, and some version of it keeps coming back. It's a fair question. The book traces Bank of America's biggest settlement, $16.65 billion (DOJ, Aug 21, 2014), payee by payee, along with 11 other US cases. That's another case. The 12 in the book answer the same question, to the cent. The question underneath is the same every time: where did the money go?
The headline number is almost never one payment. It's a bundle of deals with different agencies, added up by a reporter. Some of those deals pay each other. Some aren't cash at all. And at some point every trail hits a wall where the public papers stop.
So we took 12 of the biggest US cases and unbundled every one, using only the government's own releases. Where a trail goes dark, the page says so, and says where.
Here's one move from the method, on the case from our HSBC episode. Five agencies, five numbers. Add them and you get the number most stories print.
The rule. "Satisfied by" means zero new dollars. Cross that row out before you add anything.
Any story that adds all five overstates HSBC's hit by 46% (DOJ, Dec 11, 2012).
That's Step 5 of seven. The book runs all seven on every case, with a to-scale bar of where the money went and the exact spot the trail stops.
What comes next: the second edition adds the Fed, OCC, FinCEN and OFAC releases and the relief monitor reports, so more of these trails go further.
52 pages in three parts: the method, 12 case chapters, three full worked runs and 7 tools, plus the sources.
First edition, sources checked November 14, 2026. US cases only.
$17 plus local tax. Instant 52 page PDF. Secure Stripe checkout. All sales are final.
We're Pocket Gears. Money systems aren't secret, they're just never explained. Once you see the gears, JPMorgan's $13 billion headline (DOJ, Nov 19, 2013) stops feeling like magic or a conspiracy. It's a list of payees, and you can read the list.
For this book we read 14 government releases, added up every payee table by hand and checked each sum against the release's own total. Where a release gives cents, the book keeps the cents. Where it gives nothing, the book says "trail stops here" and doesn't guess.
What it won't do: explain how any scheme worked step by step, or tell you what to do with your money. Court-level facts only.
Government releases only: 13 from the US Justice Department (one reposted by IRS Criminal Investigation) and one Congressional Research Service report on the victims fund. Each dollar figure has its release named right beside it.
One paperback on a single bank scandal costs about the same. This is 12 cases, so about $1.42 a traced case, plus the method and trail sheet to read the next fine yourself.
Then the book says so, and says where. Most stop at "separately reached agreements" or at the forfeiture account. Knowing where the public record stops is part of the answer.
Only at court level: what the release says happened. It's about where the money went after, not how any scheme worked.
No, it's a crypto exchange. It's in the book because DOJ charged it under the same bank-secrecy law, and its release is the most exact of the 12.
You download the PDF right after paying. It opens on any device, but the payee tables are wide, so it's best on a laptop or tablet. The trail sheet prints on one page.
All sales are final. This is a digital download you get right away, so we don't offer refunds. This doesn't affect any rights you have by law. The contents and inside pages are here so you can check before buying. First edition, sources checked Nov 14, 2026. US cases only.
First edition, sources checked November 14, 2026. US cases only.
$17 plus local tax. Instant 52 page PDF. Secure Stripe checkout. All sales are final.