White-Collar Criminals: The Nigerian Prince is a 2021 young adult financial thriller novel written by author Nate Haliv. It is the first book in the White-Collar Criminals series, and introduces nineteen-year-old Josh Balogun who engages in fraud in order to pay for his father's medical bills. On May 9, 2021, Nate Haliv posted on his Instagram story that he had started working on the second book in the White-Collar Criminals series which will be titled The Way of the Wolf.

Author Nate Haliv
Language English
Genre Financial Thriller, Crime, Young Adult, Romance
Series White-Collar Criminals
Media Type Kindle, Paperback
Pages 430 pages
ISBN 979-8740553054
To be followed by The Way of the Wolf (July 2021)

Plot
Plot Summary
Josh Balogun is an eighteen-year-old Nigerian immigrant in the United States of America who wins a scholarship to study at Royal College, an exclusive college for extremely rich students. On his first day at school, Josh learns that there are three categories of students in the college. The first category of students is the Elite category. The Elites are students that were born into wealthy families. The second category of students is the New Money category. The New Money students are self-made millionaires, and students whose parents had recently acquired their wealth. The third category of students is the Student-in-Need category, which Josh belongs to. The students in need are solely scholarship students.

Josh’s life changes when he receives a call from his mother in Nigeria informing him that his father needed a huge amount of money for an organ transplant. He confides in one of his classmates named Dmitri about his financial problem, and Dmitri introduces him to a secret crime syndicate operating within the college. This crime syndicate consists of a group of indigent students who engage in fraud to fit in at the college. Together with other members of the syndicate, Josh engages in credit card fraud, identity theft, BEC (Business Email Compromise) scams, money laundering, and investment fraud. While engaging in BEC, the syndicate majorly targets tax-evading companies because such companies find it difficult to report fraud to avoid being queried and punished by the IRS for tax evasion.

Josh’s initial plan is to quit fraud after making enough money to pay for his father’s medical bills. However, he finds it hard to quit fraud after he realizes that many of his classmates begin to warm up to him and they no longer treat him with disdain after his overnight financial transformation. He becomes desperate to maintain this newfound respect from his classmates and goes deeper into fraud to make more money and maintain his expensive lifestyle.

He gets arrested after Wang, one of his fellow syndicate members, snitches on him in exchange for a plea deal. Wang gives up Josh’s name and the names of other members of the syndicate in order to get a lesser sentence. While in prison, Josh becomes repentant and vows to become a better person in the future.

The second part of the novel tells the story of Josh’s life after prison. He gets out of prison with a criminal record and no college degree. Many landlords were unwilling to rent their houses to him due to his criminal record, and many employers were unwilling to hire a person who had spent time in prison for fraud.

He becomes increasingly frustrated and develops close relationships with his Mexican neighbors, Carlos and Fernando who both work for a powerful Mexican drug cartel. Carlos and Fernando introduce him to The Professor, the leader of their drug cartel, and she agrees to let Josh work for the cartel as a money launderer.

Josh successfully launders several millions that belong to the cartel without getting caught until he falls in love with Zendaya, a church girl, and decides to leave the cartel and start a new life in another country. He tells The Professor of his plan to quit the cartel and she tells him that the only way to leave the cartel is through death. She threatens to kill Zendaya and his sister if he ever thinks of betraying the cartel. As a punishment for betraying the cartel, The Professor orders Josh to murder Diego, an undercover DEA agent who has been working as a snitch. Josh murders Diego with a chainsaw.

Josh becomes mentally unstable after killing Diego and begins to suffer from hallucinations. His conscience continues to torment him until he reaches out to the DEA to confess his crimes. He gives them all the necessary information needed to capture The Professor and her close associates. Josh ends up getting sentenced to more than twenty years in prison for his role in drug trafficking and Diego's murder.
Main Characters

● Josh Balogun – An 18-year-old Nigeria who wins a scholarship to study at Royal College, an exclusive college for rich students. As the novel progresses, Josh engages in credit card fraud, Business Email Compromise, juice jacking, identity theft, illegal stock trading, hacking, money laundering, and eventually murder.

● Dmitri – A Royal College student who introduces Josh to fraud. He is the kingpin of a small crime syndicate operating within Royal College. He is the mastermind of a $50 million BEC fraud which involves a top American green energy company.

● Wang – He is an Asian immigrant who is also a member of Dmitri's syndicate. He specializes in hacking emails and databases. He is often referred to as an evil genius due to his hacking skills. He snitches on the syndicate after Harry's death in exchange for a plea deal.

● Harry – He is also a member of Dmitri’s syndicate and he specializes in studying the communication patterns between the CEOs and the CFOs of the companies the syndicate target during BEC scams. He ends up dying of drug overdose.

● Alicia – She is a New Money student, but she also works with Dmitri. She uses her influence to help the syndicate get party invitations to exclusive parties where they always target high-profile individuals with high credit limits.

Development
Nate Haliv claims that the idea for White-Collar Criminals came to him after a famous Nigerian got arrested for fraud in Dubai. In an interview with a Nigerian blog, he says “After I heard about his arrest, I realized that I needed to write a book that would show the public why many people commit crimes. We automatically judge people for being criminals, but we barely think of the factor that make them engage in crime. I wanted to write a book that would explain the psychology behind crime and also highlight the fate of ex-convicts… We live in a world where ex-convicts are often victims of discrimination. No one wants to live near an ex-convict. No one wants to hire people with criminal records… This has to change.”

Availability
The book is available on Amazon as a kindle book and a paperback. To buy the Kindle version, change your address from Nigeria to USA. Here is the link https://www.amazon.com/White-Collar-Criminals-Nigerian-Nate-Haliv-ebook/dp/B0931V8WCD/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=white+collar+criminals&qid=1620822285&sr=8-3

One weird thing is that in cyber fruad Nigeria isn't among 1-10, yet westerners want to make it a Nigerian thing

Bone it! Cant wait for the movie series...