In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, traders and brokers from some of the largest financial institutions made a startling realization- Libor-the London interbank offered rate, which determines the interest rates on trillions in loans worldwide-was set daily by a small group of easily manipulated administrators, and that they could reap huge profits by nudging it fractions of a percent to suit their trading portfolios. Tom Hayes, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, became the lynchpin of a wild alliance that included a prickly French trader nicknamed oGollumo; the broker oAbbo,o who liked to publicly strip naked when drinking; a nervous Kazakh chicken farmer known as oDerka Derkao; a broker known as oVillageo (short for oVillage Idioto) who racked up huge expense account bills; an executive called oClumpyo because of his patchwork hair loss; and a broker uncreatively nicknamed oBig Noseo who had once been a semi-professional boxer. This group generated incredible riches -until it all unraveled in spectacularly vicious, backstabbing fashion. With exclusive access to key characters and evidence, The Spider Network is not only a rollicking account of the scam, but also a provocative examination of a financial system that was crooked throughout.