The Collapse of Greensill Capital with Duncan Mavin

Interview recorded - 30/09/2022

Buy book - https://amzn.to/3SvJO8R

On todays episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of speaking with Duncan Mavin, former Journalist for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, and author of the recently released book “The Pyramid of Lies - Lex Greensill and the Billion-Dollar Scandal” 

During our conversation we talked about what is Supply Chain Financing, Who was Lex Greensill, how the company collapsed and the fallout. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
0:26 - Influence for writing the book?
1:32 - What is Supply Chain Financing (SCF)?
3:46 - Lex Greensill’s obsession with SCF
6:50 - Empire building and always looking for the next sale
8:09 - Investing in the idea or the person?
11:30 - Why did the company and business idea not work?
16:20 - Acquiring a bank
17:45 - Was Sanjeev Gupta a perfect example of the average Greensill customer?
21:00 - Was Covid the main reason for the collapse?
24:40 - What was the fallout from the Greensill collapse?
27:48 - Contracts for not “potential” contracts
30:22 - Consistent trends with other frauds
34:45 - Higher pay at Greensill
36:36 - One message from the interview?

Duncan Mavin is a seasoned international financial journalist and author of the critically acclaimed The Pyramid of Lies: Lex Greensill and the Multi-Billion Dollar Scandal.

Born and raised near Newcastle, he studied history at Durham University and spent a decade as a chartered accountant in the City and in Toronto.

He then became a financial reporter and foreign correspondent for Canada’s National Post. Since 2009, he has been a reporter and editor for Dow Jones publications including the Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong, London and New York. Duncan wrote and edited the Journal’s influential Heard on the Street column for several years, and was the Journal’s Financial Editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He was also the Managing Editor for Barron’s Group. He has also contributed to podcasts and radio and many live events. His writing has also appeared in Barron’s, Financial News and on Bloomberg News.

He lives with his wife and three sons in the UK, and is a long-suffering fan of Sunderland football club.

Duncan Mavin - 

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Twitter - https://twitter.com/dumav?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

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