His professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst had set his graduate class an assignment - pick an economics paper and see if you can replicate the results.

BBC: News

But the flurry of policy initiatives is meant to suggest that young George sometimes kept a copy of the latest Brookings policy paper concealed inside his Playboy, and that he also knew who to call when the homework assignment was due.

ECONOMIST: The timing of the shrub | The

Lawyers for IBRC argued that the assignment was a sham, part of an asset-stripping exercise carried out at a massive undervalue and not worth the paper it was written on.

BBC: Sean Quinn case: Ukrainians go before High Court