The Great Pyramids of Albania

A BBC Radio 4 programme written, presented and  produced by Gavin Haynes

Throughout 1996, Albanians sold their houses and their livestock to buy into pyramid schemes that were doomed to fail. By the year’s end, this new kind of financial product had swallowed up almost 50 per cent of the country’s annual income, and touched nearly every adult’s life.

How did an entire country fall victim to scammers? Gavin Haynes explores the psychology of one of history’s great mass delusions, 25 years on.

He heads to Albania to hear how, in something like a fable, Europe’s most repressive Communist state was suddenly turned loose into a capitalist Wild West it was ill-prepared for. And how the knock-on effects of financial meltdown pushed the country to the brink of total anarchy.

At the heart of his journey is an ongoing mystery - what became of the life’s savings of so many ordinary people?

Listen to the programme here