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PROLOGUE
‘If you owe the bank a hundred dollars, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank a hundred million, that’s the bank’s problem.’
~ J. Paul Getty
Sanjeev Gupta was never destined to be crowned Australian of the Year, as that famous 1980s fraudster Alan Bond once was. But the smooth-talking British–Indian billionaire had clearly learned a trick or two from Australia’s one-time national hero.
In a few short years, the fast-talking tycoon had acquired all the trappings of success: luxury homes in London, Australia and Dubai; private planes and helicopters; a yacht in every port; and offshore trusts and companies to keep his baubles safe. Like Bond, he had rubbed shoulders with royalty, thrown lavish parties and been lauded as a brilliant businessman by the adoring media. But, just like Bond, his business empire was a house of cards.
It had been built with billions of dollars of Other People’s Money. And now they wanted it back.
In four years of frenzied buying, Gupta had acquired almost two dozen ailing steelworks in Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia that had been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by cheap Chinese steel flooding the world market. And everywhere he went he had been hailed as the ‘Saviour of Steel’.
In the remote South Australian town of Whyalla, he had received a hero’s welcome. Dressed in a dark blue Savile Row three-piece suit in 30-degree heat, he had been led up the main street by a bagpiper in a kilt, at the head of a parade of politicians and smiling steelworkers waving flags.
Gupta arrived there promising to transform the 50-year-old steelworks and the friendly town that depended on it, to build huge solar and hydrogen plants that would help save the planet, and to make Whyalla the world’s first manufacturer of low-emission steel, which he dubbed ‘Green Steel’.
He even called the town his spiritual home.
But eight years later, his dreams were in ruins, his promises unfulfilled, and the good folk of Whyalla were wishing they had never set eyes on him. With hundreds of millions of dollars owed to creditors, and local businesses being pushed into bankruptcy, Gupta’s employees, suppliers and political backers were all telling him: ‘Pay up or piss off.’
And it was not just Australia giving him the bum’s rush; the Whyalla story was playing out in a dozen different theatres in a dozen different countries, with the plot always the same: angry creditors, broken promises, shattered dreams and employees fearing for their future.
Throughout 2025, as his worldwide steelmaking empire was imploding under the weight of around $8 billion in debts, Gupta was desperately shuffling money between his private companies in an attempt to keep his creditors at bay and declaring that everything would turn out fine. But everyone had stopped believing. His world-class charm, infectious optimism and remarkable ability to inspire his followers were no longer enough. By now, Gupta was being investigated by the corporate cops in at least four countries—the United Kingdom, France, Romania and Australia—for possible crimes that included, as Britain’s Serious Fraud Office put it, ‘Suspected fraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering in relation to the financing and conduct of the business of companies within the Gupta Family Group . . .’
Also in their sights was a former Bundaberg sugar-cane farmer, Lex Greensill—yes, really—who had been accused by British MPs of running a Ponzi scheme. Lex’s now-bankrupt shadow banking group had lent Gupta almost all the billions he had borrowed, and the two men had been as thick as thieves.
As 2026 began, neither man had been charged. But investigators were closing in and the world was about to learn whether Sanjeev and Lex would be made to pay for their reckless actions or would walk away from the wreckage, rich, unrepentant and ready to do it again.
And everyone was asking, ‘How on earth had they gotten away with it for so long?
Extracted from The Big Steal by Paul Barry, available now.
The Big Steal
by Paul Barry
Entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta was going to rescue the Australian, UK, European and US steel industries—and save the planet with green steel. He did none of these things, but he did get very rich. This is the extraordinary story, told for the first time.
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