''Rigged: The True Story of a Wall Street Novice who Changed the World of Oil Forever'' is a book by author

Ben Mezrich Ben Mezrich ( ; born February 7, 1969) is an American author. Early life and education Mezrich was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Molli Newman, a lawyer, and Reuben Mezrich, a chairman of radiology at the University of Maryland Schoo ...

. The book recounts the story of John D'Agostino, whom the book renames David Russo. The hardback of the book was number 10 on the

New York Times Best Seller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

list in 2007, and was number 29 in paperback nonfiction on December 14, 2008.

Sources

Mezrich maintains that the book is non-fiction despite the narrative style of writing. ''Rigged'' is published as a biography and described by

D'Agostino The D'Agostino family is a Sicilian noble lineage originated at least in the thirteenth century, Sicilian strain of historical noble family Agostini Fantini Venerosi Della Seta Gaetani Bocca Grassi from Pisa, family of noble origin, Earls of ...

as "95 percent true, 5 percent minor embellishment".

Synopsis

David Russo, fresh from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

, secures a job in Wall Street as the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

had just depressed the market. A chance meeting led to an opportunity at

New York Mercantile Exchange The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is a commodity futures exchange owned and operated by CME Group of Chicago. NYMEX is located at One North End Avenue in Brookfield Place in the Battery Park City section of Manhattan, New York City. ...

—the world's largest energy exchange. At the Merc, he finds his working-class background helps him compete in the aggressive atmosphere. Russo quickly rises to become the Head of Strategy where he helps in the transition to electronic trading. In the aftermath of

9-11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

, Russo joined with colleagues to establish the

Dubai Mercantile Exchange The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) is a commodity exchange based in Dubai currently listing its flagship futures contract, DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (OQD). Launched in 2007, the DME aims to become the crude oil pricing benchmark for t ...

, a partnership between NYMEX and the government of

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

. Through this venture, Russo helped accelerate the development of capital markets in the region.

Film adaptation

Summit Entertainment Summit Entertainment is an American film production and distribution company. It is a label of Lionsgate Films, owned by Lionsgate Entertainment and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. History Independent era (1991–2012) Summit E ...

acquired the screen rights to ''Rigged'' and the book has been optioned for movie production.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigged 2007 non-fiction books American biographies HarperCollins books