Book excerpt: The Serious Fraud Office is Britain's most controversial crime-fighting organization, generating admiration and contempt in almost equal measure. It has known triumph with the Guinness convictions, disaster with the acquittal of the Maxwell brothers, and ridicule with Roger Levitt's derisory sentence of community service. In addition, it dealt with Peter Clowes, George Walker, and Asil Nadir. This book provides the background story of the Serious Fraud Office's turbulent history. Including many interviews with Britain's top fraud investigators as well as some of the SFO's most famous targets, it is published to coincide with a six-part television series.