A swindler's activity indirectly caused a political crisis in France in the last years before World War II.

Irrestisible charm and talent help Serge Alexandre alias Stavisky, small-time swindler, to make friends with even the most influential members of the French industrial and political elite during the early '30s. But nothing lasts forever and when his great scam involving hundreds millions of francs gets exposed, the result is an unprecedented scandal that almost caused a civil war.—Dragan Antulov <[email protected]>