TO REPORT AND WRITE THIS story, I relied on thousands of pages of court documents, journalistic and academic accounts of events, internal government documents, emails, transcripts, and hundreds of hours of interviews with hundreds of current and former prosecutors, Congressional staffers, and other government officials and regulators, defense attorneys, bankers, investors, corporate executives, academics, lobbyists, consumer advocates, and others.
I spoke with most of the people named in this book. For those who did not speak to me, I contacted them, or attempted to contact them, to allow them to tell their story. Many of the sources I spoke to did not want their names used. Most former prosecutors continue to work in the law and don’t want to threaten their careers by speaking out publicly. I have deliberately not attributed much in the book to protect my sources. Further details on sourcing for specific chapters can be found in the Notes section.
The book’s dialogue comes from documents or the best recollections of participants. Where I could, I tried to contact as many people in a given meeting or scene to confirm what was said. States of mind often come from the speaker, but also from documents or conversations where the speaker contemporaneously relayed to others what was said. The reader should not infer that I spoke to that person.