Kurt Eichenwald
Encyclopedia
Kurt Alexander Eichenwald (born June 28, 1961), an American
writer
and investigative reporter formerly with The New York Times
and later with Condé Nast
's business magazine, Portfolio
. Eichenwald had been employed by the Times since 1986 and primarily covered Wall Street
and corporate
topics such as insider trading
, accounting scandals
, and takeover
s, but also wrote about a range of issues including terrorism
, the Bill Clinton pardons controversy
, Federal health care policy and sexual predator
s on the Internet
. He is the author of three bestselling book
s.
scandal at Prudential Securities, which is alleged to have defrauded 340,000 people out of eight billion dollars. In the book, Eichenwald portrayed the Prudential scandal as being about more than just a single bad investment firm. "This is a cautionary tale about an abuse of the investor faith that is an essential building block of the American economy," he wrote. "At its essence, it is what allows billions of dollars of securities to trade each day based on nothing more than a voice on the telephone. By taking advantage of that faith, Prudential-Bache cracked the foundation of the marketplace." The book was celebrated in reviews, with frequent comparisons to the bestseller Barbarians at the Gate, and became Eichenwald’s first national bestseller.
for the Times, and used that story as the basis of his second bestselling book, The Informant. That book was proclaimed by The New York Times Book Review
as "one of the best nonfiction books of the last decade." A movie version of the film adaptation was released in 2009, starring Matt Damon
and directed by Steven Soderbergh
. While still a business book, The Informant was much more of a police procedural
than any of Eichenwald’s other work, depicting the inner workings of the FBI in detail.
. The book made the New York Times bestseller list in its first week in publication. The book was optioned as a movie by Warner Brothers, to possibly star Leonardo DiCaprio
. DiCaprio was involved from the start, but changes in his schedule may not allow him to act in the film, only produce, but casting details aren't final yet.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and investigative reporter formerly with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and later with Condé Nast
Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, is a magazine publisher. In the U.S., it produces 18 consumer magazines, including Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, as well as four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps...
's business magazine, Portfolio
Condé Nast Portfolio
Portfolio.com is a website published by American City Business Journals that provides news and information for small to mid-sized businesses. It was formerly the website for the monthly business magazine Condé Nast Portfolio, published by Condé Nast from 2007 to 2009.Portfolio.com is continually...
. Eichenwald had been employed by the Times since 1986 and primarily covered Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
and corporate
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
topics such as insider trading
Insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...
, accounting scandals
Accounting scandals
Accounting scandals, or corporate accounting scandals, are political and business scandals which arise with the disclosure of misdeeds by trusted executives of large public corporations...
, and takeover
Takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company by another . In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company.- Friendly takeovers :Before a bidder makes an offer for another...
s, but also wrote about a range of issues including terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, the Bill Clinton pardons controversy
Bill Clinton pardons controversy
President Bill Clinton was criticized for some of his pardons and acts of executive clemency. While most presidents grant pardons on several days throughout their terms, Clinton chose to make most of them on January 20, 2001. Collectively, the controversy surrounding these actions has sometimes...
, Federal health care policy and sexual predator
Sexual predator
The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners...
s on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. He is the author of three bestselling book
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
s.
New York Times
Eichenwald joined the Times in 1986 and, after two years working as a news clerk, was hired as the Wall Street reporter. He primarily wrote about corporate scandals such as the criminal cases at Enron, Worldcom and Columbia/HCA, but also wrote the Market Place column for the Times beginning in 1992. Later in his career at the Times, he branched out to issues related to politics, terrorism and child pornography. In 1998, he was named a senior writer at the Times. He left the paper in 2006.Serpent on the Rock
His reporting on Prudential also led to his first book, Serpent on the Rock, which focused primarily on the limited partnershipLimited partnership
A limited partnership is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership, except that in addition to one or more general partners , there are one or more limited partners . It is a partnership in which only one partner is required to be a general partner.The GPs are, in all major respects,...
scandal at Prudential Securities, which is alleged to have defrauded 340,000 people out of eight billion dollars. In the book, Eichenwald portrayed the Prudential scandal as being about more than just a single bad investment firm. "This is a cautionary tale about an abuse of the investor faith that is an essential building block of the American economy," he wrote. "At its essence, it is what allows billions of dollars of securities to trade each day based on nothing more than a voice on the telephone. By taking advantage of that faith, Prudential-Bache cracked the foundation of the marketplace." The book was celebrated in reviews, with frequent comparisons to the bestseller Barbarians at the Gate, and became Eichenwald’s first national bestseller.
The Informant
Beginning in 1995, Eichenwald reported on the unfolding price-fixing scandal at Archer Daniels MidlandArcher Daniels Midland
The Archer Daniels Midland Company is a conglomerate headquartered in Decatur, Illinois. ADM operates more than 270 plants worldwide, where cereal grains and oilseeds are processed into products used in food, beverage, nutraceutical, industrial and animal feed markets worldwide.ADM was named the...
for the Times, and used that story as the basis of his second bestselling book, The Informant. That book was proclaimed by The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
as "one of the best nonfiction books of the last decade." A movie version of the film adaptation was released in 2009, starring Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
and directed by Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
. While still a business book, The Informant was much more of a police procedural
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
than any of Eichenwald’s other work, depicting the inner workings of the FBI in detail.
Conspiracy of Fools
Eichenwald’s investigation of Enron led to his third and most successful book, Conspiracy of FoolsConspiracy of Fools
Conspiracy of Fools is a book by Kurt Eichenwald detailing the Enron scandal. It was published in 2005 when Eichenwald was a business journalist with The New York Times.- Synopsis :...
. The book made the New York Times bestseller list in its first week in publication. The book was optioned as a movie by Warner Brothers, to possibly star Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
. DiCaprio was involved from the start, but changes in his schedule may not allow him to act in the film, only produce, but casting details aren't final yet.
Awards
Eichenwald is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1995 and 1998, for articles about the dialysis industry and fraud at the nation's largest hospital company, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, along with his Times colleague Gina Kolata, for an investigation of medical clinical trials. In 2006, he won the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism and the Best in Business Enterprise Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.External links
- Kurt Eichenwald speaker profile at The Lavin AgencyThe Lavin AgencyThe Lavin Agency is a North American speakers bureau with offices in Boston, Toronto and Vancouver. The company was founded by David Lavin in the late 1980s.The Lavin Agency represents speakers in the fields of business, politics, arts and science.-History:...
- October 27, 2009 ABC Radio National interview with Mark Whitacre and Kurt Eichenwald
- "The New York Times Legal Aid Society" - Slate Magazine
- "A Heartbreaker From Eichenwald And The Times" - CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
- "Announcing the 2006 Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism" -- "University of OregonUniversity of Oregon-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...