Confidence Games is a lively and deeply informed human story of what went on inside the big legal and accounting firms before, during, and after the tax shelter scandals that made front page news at the turn of the millennium. Rostain and Regan give readers a solid primer, translating arcane principles of accounting. Then they add a human touch with telling details mined from a public record few others have explored.
David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning tax journalist and Syracuse University law and accounting lecturer
Few of us imagine that we will cross the line in our professional lives—and be jailed, fined, or both. But Confidence Games tells a sobering tale of individual weakness and institutional and regulatory failure that allowed esteemed law firms, accounting firms, and multinationals to reap illegal profits at the expense of the nation.
Diane Ring, Professor of Law, Boston College Law School, and coauthor of Ethical Problems in Federal Taxation
This book manages what many might think impossible: it's a page-turner about tax. It shows what can happen when very smart people unconstrained by ethics invent and use ingenious schemes. The history is fascinating in its own right, but it is also, unfortunately, a much-needed reminder of how gameable regulation can be.
Claire Hill, Professor and James L. Krusemark Chair in Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Rostain and Regan have captured one of the most interesting—and most troubling—episodes in the checkered history of tax shelters. Their analysis raises critical ethical and policy questions about how we train, monitor, and discipline lawyers and other financial professionals today.
Anne L. Alstott, Jacquin D. Bierman Professor in Taxation, Yale Law School
