#wealth-and-influence

#wealth-and-influence

Near the beginning of " The Way We Live Now," Anthony Trollope's searing satire of high-society London in the eighteen-seventies, Madame Melmotte, the wife of Augustus Melmotte, a crooked parvenu financier who has burst onto the British social scene, hosts a ball at the couple's mansion in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair. Despite Melmotte's checkered past, many members of the London élite accept his invitation to the party, including many aristocrats, a newspaper editor, and Prince George, a member of the British Royal Family.

Mr. Rabin spent years fostering Ms. Ramirez's trust, weaponizing his wealth and influence to camouflage his manipulation as the support of a caring friend,