THE CAESAR'S PALACE COUP

In the bestselling tradition of Michael Lewis's The Big Short and Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down the House, journalists Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap deliver a page-turning account of a Las Vegas casino heist executed not by gangsters or con men, but rather by Wall Street tycoons.

After an MIT math wizard turned a once sleepy casino chain into the biggest gaming company in the world, headlined by the storied Caesars Palace, two of the most storied private equity firms in the world swooped in and took control in a blockbuster buyout.
The deal closed.
Then, the global economy went into its worst meltdown since the Great Depression.

THE CAESAR'S PALACE COUP follows the jokers, kings, and called bluffs of the modern distressed-debt-investing world as the two firms executed a series of brilliant, if edgy, transactions to keep their investment afloat while waiting for Sin City and Atlantic City to
bounce back. On the other side of those trades were loan and bondholders - cutthroat hedge funds - who believed that they held the cards... the company's two dozen casinos now belonged to them.

The spectacular 2015 bankruptcy of America's biggest gaming empire, started a two-year knockdown, drag-out brawl among billionaires - deftly narrated by the authors - for rightful control of Caesars Entertainment. This is modern Wall Street where the new raiders and barbarians scoop up corporate loans and bonds not to make a nice interest rate but to take private equity juggernauts head-on. It's cut-throat, multilevel competition enacted by powerful investors used to getting their own way. And as this book takes the consequences one step further, there are devastating, true impacts of the upheaval wrought by these actions. It's a treacherous game. Roll the dice.

Authors Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap, experienced financial journalists with industry experience, illuminate the major players and businesspeople at the tipping points of almost every major corporate and governmental turnaround in recent history. THE CAESAR'S PALACE COUP is a story of cut-throat, multilevel competition between powerful investors used to getting their own way. And it's a story of individuals who've managed to remain at arm's length from the true impact of upheaval wrought by their actions.

Sujeet Indap is the U.S. editor of the "Lex" column of the Financial Times, the world's leading financial newspaper. He has written extensively on corporate finance and law, with particular expertise in M&A and private equity. He covered the Caesars saga from its beginning for FT. Indap was previously an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, Lazard Freres, and Foros Group. He lives in New York, NY.
Max Frumes is a journalist, entrepreneur, and reorganization analyst who took a company from two employees and zero revenue to one hundred employees and an annualized revenue of $30 million. As Reorg Research's founding editor, in 2013 he launched a publication that became the industry leader in technical coverage of distressed-debt investing and corporate bankruptcies. Frumes has reported for S&P Capital IQ LDC, Forbes.com, and The Deal on the private equity beat. He lives in the NYC tri-state area.