Bribe, Swindle or Steal

In this re-posted episode, Prof. Mark Pieth discusses his book, Gold Laundering: The dirty secrets of the gold trade - and how to clean up. He outlines the many problems, including child and trafficked labor, environmental degradation, violence, and corruption. He also addresses some modest steps forward and how, in spite of the considerable challenges, more progress can be made.

This epsiode was originally posted on December 1, 2021.

In light of last week’s sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried—25 years in prison and an $11 billion forfeiture order—we are re-posting our conversation with Jim Campbell, author of “Madoff Talks” and his comparison of the two men.

Originally posted on January 25, 2023

For this week’s podcast, we listen in on the excellent presentation—dense with practical information—by John Davis, member, Miller & Chevalier, at the TRACE Forum in Annapolis.

This week on Bribe, Swindle, or Steal, we listen in on the presentation of Nicola Bonucci, International Lawyer and former Director for Legal Affairs OECD, at the TRACE Forum in Annapolis. Nicola provides context for recent compliance news from the EU and discusses the adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive at a gathering of compliance experts just three hours after the news broke!

Tom Cardamone, President and CEO of Global Financial Integrity, joins the podcast to discuss the regulatory and enforcement challenges associated with flags of convenience. These range from trafficked labor to environmental violations and Tom highlights the inherent tension between substantial tax incentives on one hand and accountability on the other.

Originally posted September 15, 2021

Pavel Verkhniatsky joins the podcast from Kyiv where he is the Managing Partner of COSA Solutions with particular expertise in sophisticated due diligence and cross-border investigations. We range from the very broad and geopolitical to the very specific as Pavel discusses the impact of sanctions on Russia, as well as common due diligence 'red flags'.

Daniel Treisman, co-author of Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century, discusses the new generation of dictators and how they weaponize information, bully with legal action and mobilize enablers to stay in power.

Originally posted on May 24, 2023

Zeke Faux joins the podcast to talk about the support and credibility provided to oil tankers violating sanctions by the companies that insure them.  Zeke, together with Zachary Mider, wrote an excellent Bloomberg article earlier this month about one New York insurance company that insures a disproportionate number of these aged tankers accused of shipping sanctioned Iranian oil.

In honor of the extraordinarily courageous and principled life of Alexei Navalny, first poisoned with Novichuk and killed today in Polar Wolf prison, we are reposting our 2021 conversation with his chief of staff, Leonid Volkov.

Leonid Volkov joins the podcast to talk about Putin's obsessive campaign against Navalny, who was first poisoned with Novichok and later imprisoned. Volkov also discusses the deep roots of corruption in Russia and how the west can support Russians determined to end the looting of their country.

Author, academic and former compliance professional, Alison Taylor joins the podcast to talk about her compelling new book.  She describes the contradictions inherent in companies that talk about “doing well by doing good” and explains why corporate reputation management can’t be an end in itself and how trying to do less can be the best strategy.  “You don’t have to join every conversation”.

Valerie Salembier, former publisher of Harper’s Bazaar and founder of The Authentics Foundation, discusses the true cost of counterfeit luxury items: child labor, trafficked labor and organized crime.

This episode originally aired on July 3, 2018.

Investigative journalist Erlend Ofte Arntsen of Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang joins the podcast to discuss his work on the Tinder Swindler story, adapted into a Netflix documentary. Erlend and his colleagues broke the story of Shimon Hayut, an Israeli con man who found women on the dating app, impressed them with private jets and bodyguards, concocted stories about being in great personal danger and then drained their bank accounts and left them with extraordinary credit card debt. 

This episode originally aired on February 15, 2022.

Tom Firestone, a partner with Squire Patton Boggs in Washington, discusses the new US Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA).  Tom’s perspective is especially interesting as he previously served as the Legal Adviser at the US Embassy in Moscow dealing with financial crime there and, in 2018, he wrote an article on what was needed to tackle the demand side of bribery.

François Valérian joins the podcast to discuss the platform on which he ran in TI's recent election, his priorities and his thoughts on the state of global anti-corruption efforts.

Dan Kahn, former Chief of the DOJ’s FCPA unit and current partner with Davis Polk, talks us through the anti-corruption enforcement actions, trends and highlights of 2023.

Jim Campbell, author of "Madoff Talks" and featured in the recently released Netflix documentary, "Madoff: Monster of Wall Street", joins the podcast to talk about FTX. Having studied both men, he compares what we know about Bankman-Fried and Madoff.

This podcast originally aired onJanuary 25, 2023.

Jared Bibler joins the podcast to discuss his lively book about the complete meltdown of Iceland's banking sector and, as a result, its economy. It was a brazen scheme equal in size to three Enrons and, although it happened in 2008, it remains a timely cautionary tale for the banking sector and regulators today.

Podcast originally aired: April 12, 2023

Kevin G. Hall, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project's North America editor, reflects on how the Panama Papers have shaped investigative journalism over the past six years and the biggest challenges journalists face today.

Podcast originally aired: April 26, 2023

Laura Harth with Safeguard Defenders joins the podcast to talk about the more than 50 illegal Chinese police stations operating around the world, including in the United States and Canada. These violate both the sovereignty of the inadvertent ‘host’ countries and the rights of the Chinese citizens abroad who are stalked and coerced to comply with government demands to return to China or risk the persecution of their families. Laura discusses her organization’s excellent report 110 Overseas:  Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild. (The title is based on the emergency number for the police in China - 110.) 

Podcast originally aired: February 8, 2023

Chaim Gelfand, Vice President, Compliance, at NSO Group joins the podcast to talk about managing compliance for a product that has, baked into its design, complex privacy, corruption and human rights implications. Because of the controversial nature of spyware, we will hear from journalist Khadija Ismayilova next week about the allegation that spyware was installed on her cell phone and her concerns about abuse of the technology.

Podcast originally aired: March 8, 2023

Michael Forsythe, co-author with Walt Bogdanich of “When McKinsey Comes to Town”, joins the podcast to talk about McKinsey’s work in support of autocratic regimes, its rampant conflicts of interest and the distance between its stated values and its work on the ground.

This episode originally aired on January 18, 2023.

Randall Eliason talks about extortion, conspiracy, cover-up crimes and plea bargains – topics covered in his excellent new 24 lecture course available through Great Courses. He also takes us through some examples from recent headlines.

This episode originally aired on September 29, 2020.

Yana Gorokhovskaia of Freedom House joins the podcast to talk about transnational repression, the increasingly common abuse and intimidation by states of their citizens living abroad. Yana discusses Jamal Khashoggi, murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Roman Protasevich, whose plane was forced to land in Belarus where he is still being held, but also refers to the hundreds of other cases that don’t make the news. Freedom House has released an excellent report on this problem that can be found at: https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression.

This episode originally aired January 5, 2022.

Dr. Frank Badua, Associate Professor of Accounting and Business Law at Lamar University College of Business, describes the misconduct from the 1950s through the 1970s by a group of companies that led to widespread support for passage of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

This episode originally aired February 5, 2020.

Federico Masera with the University of New South Wales and the Resilient Democracy Lab in Sydney joins the podcast to discuss his recent research, together with Giorgio Gulino, "Contagious Dishonesty: Corruption Scandals and Supermarket Theft." Their intriguing research uncovers a trend toward substantially increased customer theft at supermarkets in the immediate aftermath of local corruption scandals involving prominent public officials.

This podcast was originally published on September 22, 2021.

Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist Maria Ressa joins the podcast to talk about corruption, disinformation and how to stand up to a dictator.

We at TRACE are thankful for all of the investigative journalists that work to uncover financial crime, often at considerable personal risk.

This podcast was originally published on February 22, 2023.

For today’s podcast, we’re listening in on Pascale Dubois’ excellent and fast-paced review of the international anti-bribery landscape at the recent TRACE Forum in London.  Pascale is a leading international executive advisor and independent expert who has been involved with anti-corruption efforts for two decades, including as the World Bank’s VP of the Integrity Vice Presidency.

Jessica Tillipman, Associate Dean for Government Procurement Law at George Washington Law School, joins the podcast to give a fantastic, detailed and fast-paced overview of the latest Menendez corruption allegations, interspersed with gold bars, bundles of cash and a Mercedes convertible. In the process, Jessica takes us back to the overturning of Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s corruption conviction and what we should expect in its wake.

As Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on, we revisit Russian corruption and its weaponization of financial crime in our 2017 interview with Bill Browder. He describes the brazen fraud and violence of Putin’s Russia, the death of Sergei Magnitsky, and the passage of the Magnitsky Act. You can also listen to our most recent  interview with Bill, discussing his excellent book, "Freezing Order." (That episode was originally published in 2017.)

This week, we’re listening in on Jeff Clark’s excellent presentation at the recent TRACE Forum in London.  Jeff is a partner in Cadwalader’s Washington office and discusses the DOJ’s revised ECCP, with an emphasis on corporate communications and compensation policies.

This week, we listen in on the presentation of the inimitable Michelle de Kluyver of Addleshaw Goddard at the recent TRACE Forum in London.

Jessica Tillipman of George Washington Law School covers the highlights and key points from the Siemens bribery case of 2008. It was a startling case at the time and divided the international enforcement landscape into the world before and after Siemens. (This episode was originally published in 2020.)

Today’s podcast is the fourth and final episode in a four-part guest series produced by the Global Reporting Centre and European Investigative Collaborations. The series tells the fascinating and little-known story about a trove of leaked documents exposing the machinations of a trust company in Jersey, Britain’s notorious tax haven.

Today’s podcast is the third in a four-part guest series produced by the Global Reporting Centre and European Investigative Collaborations. The series tells the fascinating and little-known story about a trove of leaked documents exposing the machinations of a trust company in Jersey, Britain’s notorious tax haven.

Today’s podcast is the second in a four-part guest series produced by the Global Reporting Centre and European Investigative Collaborations. The series tells the fascinating and little-known story about a trove of leaked documents exposing the machinations of a trust company in Jersey, Britain’s notorious tax haven.

Today’s podcast is the first in a four-part guest series produced by the Global Reporting Centre and European Investigative Collaborations. The series tells the fascinating and little-known story about a trove of leaked documents exposing the machinations of a trust company in Jersey, Britain’s notorious tax haven.

Yuliia Hnat, Co-Founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art NGO and Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund, and Irina Tarsis, Founder and Managing Director at the Center for Art Law, join the podcast to talk about all that is being done to preserve Ukraine’s tangible heritage during the Russian invasion and to catalog art and antiquities to ensure that they can’t easily be traded on the international market and can eventually be restored to Ukraine.

Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness and author of Very Bad People: The Inside Story of the Fight Against the World’s Network of Corruption, joins the podcast to discuss the early days of his Global Witness investigations, how their efforts gained momentum and where we should be focusing our attention next. (This episode was originally published in 2022.)

Scott Greytak of Transparency International U.S. joins the podcast to talk about the many loopholes that permit U.S. lawyers to work for criminal actors as they exploit the U.S. financial system. He brings us up-to-date on the ABA’s recent change to its Model Rules of Professional Conduct and when we’ll see the ENABLERS Act revisited.

Robert Worth, a journalist previously based in Baghdad with the New York Times and author of A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil from Tahrir Square to ISIS, describes the deadly and intractable problem of corruption in Iraq. He discusses the role the United States and its pallets of cash played in this, but also the enforced sectarian apportionment of power—the Muhasasa—that ensures each group protects its fiefdom rather than acting in the best interest of the whole country. (This episode was originally published in 2022.)

Oliver Bullough joins the podcast again to discuss his book, Butler to the World. The book addresses how the UK went from a colonial power dominating the world to a service provider—or butler or perhaps consigliere—to the world’s oligarchs. (This episode was originally published in 2022.)

Kelly Richmond Pope, Professor of Forensic Accounting at DePaul University, joins the podcast to talk about her new book: Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry. She describes the three types of fraud perpetrators and why we blame the victims of fraud for their gullibility and I ask her whether lawyers or accountants are more at fault for rampant fraud!

Jennifer Taub, author, legal scholar, professor and advocate, joins the podcast to talk about her latest book: Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime. Jennifer focuses, in particular, on how much more gently we treat corporate financial crime than we do very petty financial crime, in spite of the fact that the former costs taxpayers far more money. (This episode was originally published in 2021.)

Hans Greimel and William Sposato, journalists and authors, join the podcast to discuss their book: Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire. They cover Ghosn’s rise to hero status in Japan, his ultimate fall—arrest, detention and escape from the country—and the many compliance challenges raised by this strange story. (This episode was originally published in 2021.)

Jeff Cottle of Brown Rudnick, and former partner of Norton Rose Fulbright, discusses how to secure and maintain board support, what ideal communications patterns look like and when and how to leave if the board refuses to hear bad news. (This episode was originally published in 2019.)

The first episode of a two-part series, Chaim Gelfand, Vice President, Compliance, at NSO Group talks about managing compliance for a product that has, baked into its design, complex privacy, corruption and human rights implications. Because of the controversial nature of spyware, we hear from journalist Khadija Ismayilova in the second episode about the allegation that spyware was installed on her cell phone and her concerns about abuse of the technology. (This episode was originally published in March 2023.)

This podcast is the second episode in a two-part discussion of the compliance and human rights implications of spyware. After hearing from Chaim Gelfand at NSO Group, we asked Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist in Azerbaijan who is alleged to have been monitored for four years by spyware installed on her phone, to speak to the privacy and human rights issues. (The first half of the conversation has some IT issues, but it clears up in the second half, so please stay with us!) (This episode was originally published in March 2023.)

Peter Humphrey and his wife were well-respected compliance professionals active in China when they were arrested, tried and imprisoned unjustly for two years. (This episode was originally published in 2017.)

Jessica Warwick in Norton Rose’s Ottawa office joins the podcast to talk about the Arapakota decision and what it means for anti-bribery enforcement in Canada.

Data scientist, whistleblower and now author, Frances Haugen, joins the podcast to discuss her book, which comes out today. Frances describes her journey through tech as an algorithmic product manager, her growing understanding of the risk of radicalization and political violence that Facebook posed and her ultimate decision to blow the whistle when it became clear that Facebook, profiting from outrage, wasn’t going to fix itself.

Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica joins the podcast to discuss their investigation into the gifts, travel, tuition, rent and other benefits lavished on Justice Thomas directly—or indirectly for the benefit of family members—by right-wing billionaire, Harlan Crow. Jesse discusses the initial article, the tips they received with additional information after publishing it, and the political backlash to their reporting.

New York Times reporter Ian Urbina discusses his excellent but grim series about crime and impunity on the high seas. (This episode was originally published in 2020.)

Daniel Treisman, co-author of Spin Dictators:  The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century, discusses the new generation of dictators and how they weaponize information, bully with legal action and mobilize enablers to stay in power.

Journalist and author Nicolas Niarchos discusses the current state of compliance in battery metal mining, political and regional challenges in the industry, and his forthcoming book on the topic.

Chuck Duross, former head of the DOJ’s FCPA unit and now a partner with Morrison & Forester, walks us through the many compliance challenges associated with employee use of messaging apps, together with a few suggestions on how best to manage the risk.

James Heinzen joins the podcast to talk about his book, The Art of the Bribe: Corruption Under Stalin 1943-1953 and how bribery, extortion and embezzlement in Russia have changed—or not—over the last 70 years.

Kevin G. Hall, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’s North America editor, reflects on how the Panama Papers have shaped investigative journalism over the past six years and the biggest challenges journalists face today.

Paul Massaro of the U.S. Helsinki Commission provides an animated overview of current policy initiatives, U.S. support for Ukraine and what’s next in the fight against global kleptocracy.

Jared Bibler joins the podcast to discuss his lively book about the complete meltdown of Iceland’s banking sector and, as a result, its economy. It was a brazen scheme equal in size to three Enrons and, although it happened in 2008, it remains a timely cautionary tale for the banking sector and regulators today.

Investigative reporter Sam Cooper describes the waves of drugs and laundered money from China crashing on Canada’s shores. Sam's book is “Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons, and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West.” (This episode was originally published in 2021.)

With new foreign bribery charges announced against Sam Bankman-Fried this week, we’re revisiting our discussion with Jim Campbell, author of “Madoff Talks.” Having studied both men, he compares what we know about Bankman-Fried and Madoff.

Olivia Swaak-Goldman, Executive Director of the Wildlife Justice Commission, joins the podcast to discuss the impact of corruption and the role of organized crime in the illicit trade in wildlife.

Today’s podcast is the second episode in a two-part discussion of the compliance and human rights implications of spyware. After hearing from Chaim Gelfand at NSO Group last week, we asked Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist in Azerbaijan who is alleged to have been monitored for four years by spyware installed on her phone, to speak to the privacy and human rights issues.  (The first half of the conversation has some IT issues, but it clears up in the second half, so please stay with us!)

Chaim Gelfand, Vice President, Compliance, at NSO Group joins the podcast to talk about managing compliance for a product that has, baked into its design, complex privacy, corruption and human rights implications. Because of the controversial nature of spyware, we will hear from journalist Khadija Ismayilova next week about the allegation that spyware was installed on her cell phone and her concerns about abuse of the technology.

Hentie Dirker, Chief ESG and Integrity Officer with SNC-Lavalin, speaks to Jonathan Drimmer of Paul Hastings about building a culture of compliance in the aftermath of a bribery scandal. (This episode was originally published in August 2019.)

Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist Maria Ressa joins the podcast to talk about corruption, disinformation and how to stand up to a dictator.

Rob Koehler, WADA veteran and current Director General of Global Athlete, joins the podcast to discuss the epidemic of doping in sports, the imbalance of power between athletes and administrators and the IOC's startling decision to allow Russia to compete in the Paris Games in spite of its invasion of Ukraine.

Laura Harth with Safeguard Defenders joins the podcast to talk about the more than 50 illegal Chinese police stations operating around the world, including in the United States and Canada. These violate both the sovereignty of the inadvertent ‘host’ countries and the rights of the Chinese citizens abroad who are stalked and coerced to comply with government demands to return to China or risk the persecution of their families. Laura discusses her organization’s excellent report 110 Overseas:  Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild. (The title is based on the emergency number for the police in China - 110.) 

Jim Campbell, author of “Madoff Talks” and featured in the recently released Netflix documentary, “Madoff:  Monster of Wall Street,” joins the podcast to talk about FTX.  Having studied both men, he compares what we know about Bankman-Fried and Madoff.

Michael Forsythe, co-author with Walt Bogdanich of “When McKinsey Comes to Town”, joins the podcast to talk about McKinsey’s work in support of autocratic regimes, its rampant conflicts of interest and the distance between its stated values and its work on the ground. 

Diana Henriques describes Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, discusses how difficult it is to uncover fraud by those who prey on the trust of others and addresses the simple, consistent controls that saved some investors from losses. Diana is featured in the new Netflix series MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins the podcast to discuss her book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, which examines 100 years of authoritarian rule. She describes the characteristics of a strongman and the strange virility cult surrounding these leaders before turning to the central role of corruption in the autocrat’s playbook.

(This episode was originally published in November 2021.)

Reflecting on the year as it draws to a close, we note with great sadness the recent loss of sports journalist, author and inimitable soccer analyst, Grant Wahl. We’re replaying today our podcast with Grant from 2017.  He was generous with his time, happy to share his expertise and invariably good humored. He is missed.

As we near the end of the year, we asked nine experts in the field to provide us with their compliance predictions for 2023. Surprisingly, no prediction was duplicated.  We hope you enjoy these prognostications and we wish you all a wonderful holiday season and all the very best in the year ahead!

Dan Kahn, former Chief of the FCPA Unit, joins the podcast to discuss the September Monaco Memo now that the compliance community has had some time to debate it.  Dan discusses the good news, and some concerns, associated with cooperation credit, voluntary disclosure, recidivist companies, monitors and ongoing concerns about personal devices and ephemeral apps.

Casey Michel with the Hudson Institute's Kleptocracy Initiative joins the podcast for a very lively discussion about his book, American Kleptocracy: How the U.S. Created the World’s Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History. Casey discusses America’s role in the problem of global kleptocracy and shares some optimism about the path ahead. (This episode was originally published in 2021.)

Dr. Magnus Öhman of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) joins the podcast to discuss how corruption undermines free and fair elections. He discusses his recent publication: “Vote for Free: A Global Guide for Citizen Monitoring of Campaign Finance,” which provides an eight-step model for civil society organizations seeking to monitor campaign finance.

Mykola Murskyj with Razom for Ukraine joins the podcast to discuss the organization’s work in Ukraine, the anti-corruption climate there prior to the invasion and steps that can be taken now. Mykola also discusses the Enablers Act.

This week, we’re listening in on Alexandra Wrage’s recent keynote presentation at a Whistleblowers and Public Integrity conference hosted by the Vancouver Anti-Corruption Institute (VACI).  She addresses the incredible personal price that whistleblowers pay when they’re driven to expose misconduct, explores how we can begin to shift the tone of the discussion around reporting and notes how difficult it is to uncover financial crime without whistleblowers.

As we approach the 2022 World Cup, we’re revisiting our 2018 episode with Ken Bensinger, who discusses his fascinating book, Red Card, and the decades of misconduct by FIFA eventually uncovered by the FBI. We play “violation bingo” as Ken describes the bribery, self-dealing, conflicts of interest and money laundering that were business as usual at FIFA.

As we approach the 2022 World Cup, we’re revisiting our 2017 episode with journalist Grant Wahl on how decades of FIFA corruption and self-dealing have undermined the world's favorite sport. (This episode was originally published in 2017.)

Speaking at the TRACE London Forum, Oliver Bullough, author of Butler to the World, discusses the UK’s role as an enabler of financial crime, efforts toward accountability, the balance between transparency and privacy, and the weaponization of lawsuits in British courts to silence journalists.

Investigative journalist Dorothee Myriam Kellou tells the story of the Lafarge plant in Syria that was ultimately taken over by ISIS

Paul Caruana Galizia, a journalist with Tortoise media, joins the podcast to talk about the work of his mother, Daphne, the growing danger she perceived as her investigations reached the highest circles of power in Malta, and now the criminal proceedings against the two men who killed her. Paul also discusses the Daphne Foundation and the incredible journalistic community that worked together, again, to prove that killing a journalist won’t kill their story.

This week, we hear from Leonid Volkov who spoke at the recent TRACE London Forum.  Leonid is Alexei Navalny’s Chief of Staff and Political Director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation.  He discusses the role of corruption in Putin’s Russia as well as the impact of sanctions and the toll that rampant corruption is taking on Russia.

This week, we’re listening in on our conversation with Bill Browder at the TRACE London Forum. Bill discusses his new book, Freezing Order, and his ongoing quest for accountability and justice following the abuse and murder of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.

Jonathan Drimmer of Paul Hastings describes how to create and sustain a culture of compliance.

In light of recent news about Leonard Glenn Francis' escape from house arrest ahead of his U.S. sentencing, we're revisiting our episode with Doyle Hodges, Commander, USN, ret., and Stephen Wrage, Professor, U.S. Naval Academy. They describe how "Fat Leonard" of Glenn Defense Marine Asia organized and executed a scheme that corrupted at least 30 officers and compromised over 400 others.

International sports expert, Declan Hill, returns to the podcast to discuss the FIFA trial that concluded in late December and the outlook for meaningful reform.

Freelance journalist Nicolas Niarchos joins the podcast to discuss his excellent piece in the New Yorker: The Dark Side of Congo’s Cobalt Rush. He also describes his recent incarceration and that of his Congolese colleague, Jeef Kazadi, during their ongoing investigation in the DRC.

Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness and author of Very Bad People: The Inside Story of the Fight Against the World’s Network of Corruption, joins the podcast to discuss the early days of his Global Witness investigations, how their efforts gained momentum and where we should be focusing our attention next.

Paul Holden of Shadow World Investigations joins the podcast to discuss the South African Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture (“Zondo Commission”).  He describes the extensive corruption and money-laundering enabled by banks and international corporations and makes a prediction about whether the Gupta brothers, recently arrested in Dubai, will be extradited to South Africa.

At the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting award ceremony last month, former prosecutor and National Observer columnist Sandy Garossino led a conversation with ICIJ’s Spencer Woodman, Bellingcat’s Aric Toler, and 2022 Prize winners Hans Peterson Hammer of Göteborgs-Posten and Lilia Saúl Rodriguez of the OCCRP. They discuss the evolution, impact and future of cross-border collaborative investigative journalism.

Omar Alshogre, refugee, political activist and Georgetown University student, shares the wrenching story of his three years as a political prisoner in the worst of Syria’s prisons. He discusses the role that extortion plays there, simultaneously delegitimizing the regime further and propping it up financially.

Episode resources: 

Jim Wasserstrom spoke at the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting in Vancouver last month, describing his own experience as a whistleblower and his commitment to building an Integrity Sanctuary where whistleblowers can recover and flourish in safety.

Khadija Ismayilova spoke at the TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting in Vancouver last week, describing the risks to whistleblowers and what we can do to encourage and protect them.

Oliver Bullough, Tom Burgis and Sarah Chayes, authors of three of the best books on global corruption, gather for a panel at the Annapolis Book Festival for a fascinating discussion about how the corrupt operate, often with impunity, and what can be done to slow the pace of looting.