A veritable secret war for power takes place behind the scenes in big financial groups. One of the most common methods of attack is the takeover bid: A would-be buyer offers to acquire all available shares of a rival at a determined price in order to control it. The W group is attacked by FENICO, a business conglomerate. As if this were not enough, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service also takes on Largo Winch. Will he lose his entire fortune?
20 seconds to tell the difference between friend and enemy, tochoose
between life and death.Poor Largo is beside himself with worry. The
lovely Saidee, with whom he's fallen madly in love, hasvanished. In
fact, she's being held prisoner by a CIA agent who'd forced her to
infiltrate a fundamentalistnetwork hell-bent on blowing Winch up -
but which is actually being manipulated by a Russianbusinessman...
Phew. Nothing is ever simple with Largo! How is he supposed to save
his love, keep hisgroup going - while also staying alive, if at all
possible?
Largo Winczlav, born in Yugoslavia, is an orphan. Thousands of miles away, one of the richest men in the world will change Largo's destiny. He has the same name, but slightly different: "Winch." This man, Nerio Winch, wants to find an heir to his empire and adopts Largo, offering him the best education. When his adoptive father disappears under dramatic circumstances, Largo inherits the W Group, the biggest conglomerate of multinational enterprises ever possessed and managed by a single man. From now on, he will be worth $10 billion. Which is not to everybody's taste, as he is about to find out...This two-volume book includes the W Group
Largo's best friend, Simon Ovronnaz, is being targeted by the secret services of Myanmar (formerly Burma). Simon and his girlfriend are wrongfully convicted of murder and imprisoned. After a very flawed trial, Simon is condemned to death and transferred to the infamous Fort Makiling. Blissfully ignorant of his friend's fate, Largo is enjoying a romantic adventure at the top of the world, while the plot against him deepens dangerously.
The last time we saw our friend Largo, he was orbiting our world in the company of one of his business rivals, having narrowly escaped death by asphyxiation. Who sabotaged their shuttle launch? Could it be the rival himself, Jarod Munskind? Or his wife Demetria, still on Earth? Perhaps the mysterious employers of a group of assassins currently plying their deadly trade around the edges of the W Group? The explosive conclusion to Largo's latest adventure.
A man shoots himself in front of Largo, live on TV. He was a guest on a financial talk show who had lost his company because of a Group W decision. Shocked by the knowledge that he is indirectly responsible, Winch becomes an object of hatred for the nation, and his two best friends abandon him. When suspicions arise that shady dealings led to unnecessary restructurings, he launches an investigation to identify the real culprits.
H : Largo Winch gives a cocktail party to launch his foundation for war orphans when a waiter brings out one of his colleagues' severed head on a tray. He has been murdered by the drugs traffickers Largo is after. In a matter of hours, the billionaire's life is turned upside down.
Dutch Connection : Two policemen are shot down as they arrest Largo Winch and he is charged with the murders. On top of that, he is accused of being part of the international heroin trade. Largo flees to Paris and ends up in the homeless community, with little hope of escaping the dire fate that awaits him : a lifelong jail sentence...
Largo is stuck on a boat with Silky. But this isn't the end of a James Bond story: the vessel's a container ship that belongs to Winch's enemy, a Georgian arms dealer who seems to be behind all the billionaire's current problems. And the crew are armed and trigger-happy... Not entirely surprising, since this time the plot is not just about money - it's also very personal! Poor Largo; things were so much simpler before he stopped being an orphan...
After the dramatic events in London, Largo is on the hunt for the man who ordered the bombing that nearly killed him. But his enemy, whoever he is, has a lot of people working for him - and is always three moves ahead. And as the body count rises, Largo must also guide the Group W through the troubled waters of modern finance: high- frequency trading, anti-globalisation movements ... and his own need to moralise his activities. Not an easy task among the sharks...
Largo is in London for a board meeting with his group's various CEOs. At the same time, he's negotiating with a French aeronautics firm for a deal based upon a groundbreaking new technology. But the British capital seems to be the centre of a curious convergence: people with no apparent links to each other gravitate towards Largo and his inner circle. Old lovers, new flames, intelligence agencies, terrorists... Will the billionaire recognise his true allies amidst such a tangled web?
Simon-Largo's friend-has been cast as the lead in a new TV series, "Golden Gate." It's produced in part by one of Group W's subsidiaries. When the investigator sent by Dwight Cochrane to examine irregularities in the funding of the series disappears, Largo takes matters into his own hands and heads to the city by the Bay. But what will he find? An innocuous example of bad television? A case of tax evasion? Or... worse?
In the middle of the night, a man runs through the narrow back alleys of Venice. Three men are after him. He breaks into a travel agency, where he faxes Winch a hastily scribbled message before being gunned down by his pursuers. The person who hands Largo Winch the fax in New York is also killed. The message says only: "Beware of the doge*..." Our millionaire businessman hero thinks his friend, the gorgeous Charity, could be in trouble and heads for Italy. They are invited to a masked ball, where they indeed meet a doge . . .
* A Renaissance-era term for the chief magistrate of the former republics of Venice and Genoa
Largo Winch has been hoodwinked, framed and sent to jail. His enemies are celebrating their victory after taking control of his TV station. His friends are either in prison or in mortal danger... But Largo wasn't born a billionaire. He knows how to fight dirty, and now he's going to have to strike back at the circle of crooks, pimps and murderers who came after him-before they kill all potential witnesses, including his own employee, Sarah Washington.
Accused of murder and hated by an entire nation, Largo is hiding in Canada and feeling very much alone. But his friendships are stronger than his circumstances, and soon he's able to counterattack against the various factions that are trying to bring him down. Greedy lawyers, crooked CEOs, murderous accountants, all pitted against the orphan turned billionaire... In the end, only the smartest and strongest will prevail-for such is the Law of the Dollar.
Wrongly accused of causing the recent stock market crash, Largo is in
trouble. His attempt to find electronic proof of some external
manipulation ends in disaster, and in the meantime the deeds to the
entire group have been stolen. The body count keeps rising, and a
suspicious guardian angel with golden hair is keeping a close eye on
him. Largo will have to go to Saint Petersburg to unravel the multiple layers of this mystery and prove his innocence.
Largo wakes up confused in a place he doesn't recognise. The first
thing he sees when he opens his eyes is Earth ... seen from space! Ten
days earlier, the founder of a French aerospace company is murdered
by a contract killer. So begins a new adventure for the leader of the
W Group, his friends and his employees, in the world of new
technologies, the space race, environmentalism ... and social networks.
A proposed deal between one of Winch's companies and a Chinese group would require that the young billionaire come sign the contract himself in Hong Kong. But there is a problem: In his youth, Largo tangled with Chinese justice in occupied Tibet. He escaped from prison with the help of a Chinese arms smuggler, whose triad later helped rescue Simon from a Burma prison. But that help came with a price, and the triad will one day call in their favour...
Largo has disappeared. His friends and employees are trying to find him while they keep the W Group ticking, but no one seems to know what has happened to him not even the Chinese authorities. It will be up to the billionaire, locked in a cell with a corpse as his only companion, to escape on his own before he can begin reassessing who are his allies and who are his enemies.
Fresh from his old pilot Freddy's wedding, Largo is back in New York for more celebrating - the departure of one of his employees. But during the party, a Turkish national permanently retires Sir Basil with a couple of bullets. Shortly thereafter, the shooter himself is killed by a sniper before he's had a chance to say a word. When the FBI finally gets involved, they come with accusations of gun trafficking and hiring assassins... Accusations levelled at Largo himself!
