Octopus: Sam Israel, the Secret Market, and Wall Street’s Wildest Con

by Guy Lawson

True Crime

Mentioned in 1 episode

Born into one of America's most illustrious trading families, Sam Israel was determined to strike out on his own. After apprenticing with one of the greatest traders of the 1980s, he founded his own fast-growing hedge fund, promising investors extraordinary returns. But it was all an elaborate charade. After suffering devastating losses and fabricating fake returns, Israel knew it was only a matter of time before his real performance would be discovered. So when a former black-ops agent told him about a “secret market” run by the Fed, Israel bet his last $150 million on a chance to make billions. Thus began his bizarre journey into “the Upperworld”—a society populated by clandestine bankers, shady European nobility, and spooks issuing cryptic warnings about a mysterious cabal known as the Octopus.

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