BooksBarbecue
Back The Deal Goes Down
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Dedication
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Tatiana Akhmedova got her divorce from Farkhan Akhmedov in the U.K. The court said she should have £453 million, about $600 million. But Farkhan didn’t give it to her. She managed to have his yacht, said to be worth $500 million, seized in Dubai. But the Dubaites changed their mind. They let the yacht go, even though Tatiana had yet to extract a dirham, a pound, or a dollar, from Farkhan.

The Panama Papers revealed that a firm called Mossack Fonseca had moved assets through shell companies and offshore banks, hither, yon, and elsewhere, mostly to avoid taxes, but also to hide money from spouses and their attorneys. They were said to have been the fourth-largest purveyor of offshore financial services. Meaning there were three bigger ones and an unknown number of smaller ones, all busier than burrowing rodents, making millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, even billions, disappear beneath the ground. It was not enough to win a settlement. The money still had to be found. Then seized. You could see where it could drive someone in the divorce industry to murderous frustration and come to believe that inheritance was a much more efficient solution.

Allison, meanwhile, was reading Nadya Tolokonnikova, Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism. It was much more fun. It was downright inspiring. From time to time, she insisted on reading bits to me.

“I had become lifeless and apathetic. My spirit was broken.” That was when Nadya was in prison. “I was obedient because of the endless abuse, trauma, and psychological pressure. I thought, What can I do against this totalitarian machine…” But someone gave her The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for political acts, and then, after the fall of the Soviet system, emerged to became president of Czechoslovakia. “I read it, hiding it from the prison officers. Then, tears of joy. And the tears brought my confidence back. We’re not broken until we allow ourselves to be broken. Tears brought my courage back.”

“I was there,” I told Allison. “Not with Nadya. In the time of Václav Havel. Prague. January 1990.