The Big Steal: How Sanjeev Gupta played the political class
by Myriam Robin · Australian Financial ReviewMyriam RobinSenior writer
Oct 9, 2026 – 5.00am
Some financial thrillers have you imagining the author perched on the pleasure yacht, martini in hand, taking covert notes while the scheming goes down. Others appear more fly-on-the-wall, overlooking the board table, the corner office or the courtroom, the tension providing the narrative scaffolding. Paul Barry’s The Big Steal, on the life and times of would-be green steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta, puts one in mind of nothing so much as a massive cork-board where Barry has, detective-like, laid out the whole damn thing.
And no joke: Barry has it all. How Gupta brought dozens of run-down steel mills and mines on favourable terms, how he kept them (for a time) afloat, why the whole souffle eventually collapsed and why Gupta is none the worse for wear despite it. It’s all memorably unfurled, scheme within scheme, tactic upon tactic.
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Myriam RobinSenior writerMyriam Robin is a senior writer based in the Melbourne newsroom. She has previously been a Rear Window columnist and editor, and before that reported on financial markets and media. Email Myriam at myriam.robin@afr.com
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