In a world beset by headline-grabbing crises, including a coronavirus pandemic that is destroying lives and economies, the unchecked movement of dirty money may not register as an immediate threat.
But the consequences are profound. (THREAD)
New details about money that powered a fentanyl drug ring and nearly $2 trillion in other suspect funds sloshing around the globe are contained in a cache of secret financial records obtained by @BuzzFeedNews and shared with @ICIJorg and @MiamiHerald. miamiherald.com/news/local/cri…
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg The leaked documents, known as the #FinCENFiles, include more than 2,100 suspicious activity reports written by banks and other financial players and submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg The reports — dense, technical information bulletins — are the most detailed U.S. Treasury records ever leaked. They disclose payments processed by major banks, including HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Barclays.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg Four hundred journalists from almost 90 countries burrowed into the leaked records, often emerging with a thin thread of just one name or one address.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg They spent 16 months prying additional documents from sources, reading through voluminous court and archival records, interviewing crime fighters and crime victims and reviewing data on millions of transactions that took place between 1999 and 2017.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg Narcotraffickers and Ponzi schemers shift profits beyond the reach of authorities. Despots and corrupt captains of industry swell ill-gotten fortunes and consolidate power. Governments, starved of revenue, can’t afford medicine to treat the sick.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg Criminal networks and the law enforcement officials trying to stop them understand that an untamed tide of dirty cash is the single most important requirement of a successful criminal enterprise.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg At the heart of these stories are real people hurt in real ways: families lost savings to predatory financial schemes, Olympic athletes cheated of wins by crooked officials, parents mourning sons and daughters fallen in battle, a mother crushed at work, a brother taken by drugs.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg Families and other victims often don’t know that their pain is, in part, the product of financial crime, or a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956, “laundering of monetary instruments.”
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg It took a network of traffickers stretching back to China, relying on the easy movement of dirty money through brand-name financial institutions, to deliver lab-designed opioids across the U.S.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg “Anyone can be a trafficker now because of smartphones,” said Donald Im, an assistant special agent in charge with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “If anyone can be an Uber driver, anyone can be a drug trafficker.”
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg Sparked by the secret files, reporters traced a Rhode Island drug dealer’s dollars to a chemist’s lab in Wuhan, China; explored scandals that crippled economies in Africa and Eastern Europe; tracked tomb raiders who looted ancient artifacts that were sold to New York galleries.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg They surveyed Venezuelan tycoons who siphoned money from public housing and hospitals; and scrutinized the Middle East’s largest gold refinery, the subject of a sprawling, never-revealed, U.S. money laundering probe.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg “People may not be aware of issues like money laundering and offshore companies,” said Jodi Vittori, a corruption expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg “But they feel the effects every day,” continued Vittori, “because these are what make large-scale crime pay — from opioids to arms trafficking to stealing COVID-19- related unemployment benefits.”
@BuzzFeedNews@ICIJorg More than 31,000 Americans died from synthetic opioids in 2018. Fentanyl and other laboratory-made drugs, some 10,000 times more potent than morphine, now kill more Americans than any other opioid.
The U.S. Treasury Department says that financial crime makes it all possible.
SPECIAL REPORT: Gov. DeSantis has declared Florida the place where “woke goes to die,” ordering state universities to list their diversity initiatives.
But just what kind of ‘indoctrination’ is he saving us from? Field trips to encourage girls’ interest in science, for one. 🧵
Or Charlie Mitchell’s theater appreciation class.
He couldn’t believe it when a reporter from UF’s student newspaper called and told him that his class was on DeSantis’ blacklist of diversity initiatives at universities. miamiherald.com/news/local/edu…
He was just a guy who had spent 12 years teaching in the theater department, he said, and suddenly it felt like he had a “target” on his back.
Twelve handsome new townhouses line a Coconut Grove block. Lushly landscaped, outfitted with high-end appliances and spacious closets, they’re in move-in condition.
But instead of “For Sale” signs, house hunters see “No Trespassing” notices posted along the street. 🧵
The townhouses, originally priced from $1.2 to $1.8M, are under contract to buyers who put down as much as $500K as far back as 2018. They were told by the developer the homes would be ready in six months — at the latest.
Their plans have been perpetually postponed by the self-proclaimed “King of Coconut Grove” Doug Cox, owner of Drive Development, who has failed to deliver.
His projected closing dates teased buyers as the houses beckoned.
But their dreams of a dream home have gone bust.
The man known as the most corrupt agent in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration history — José Irizarry — says he’s not going to take the fall alone. 🧵
He's accusing some long-trusted DEA colleagues of joining him in skimming millions of dollars from drug money laundering stings to fund a decade’s worth of luxury overseas travel, fine dining, top seats at sporting events and frat house-style debauchery. miamiherald.com/news/local/cri…
“We had free access to do whatever we wanted,” the 48-year-old Irizarry told the @AP in a series of interviews before beginning a 12-year federal prison sentence. “We would generate money pick-ups in places we wanted to go. And once we got there it was about drinking and girls.”
2/ On Sunday, Oct. 23, Republican Party canvasser Christopher Monzon, 27, was brutally beaten by two men on the street where he was knocking on doors and passing out fliers in East Hialeah.
To recap what’s happened since, here’s a timeline of events:
3/ The initial police report — released after Rubio’s tweet on Monday, Oct. 24 — did not mention anything about the attack being politically motivated.
That changed when a subsequent report, based on a subsequent interview with the victim, comported with what Rubio had tweeted.
📰 IN TODAY'S MIAMI HERALD: It doesn’t matter whether you’re new here or have lived in Miami your entire life. There is never a shortage of mysteries and oddities here.
That’s where Curious305 comes in. 🧵
From navigating life with iguanas and all sorts of invasive species to really crucial information like who wrote the Santa’s Enchanted Forest jingle, Curious 305 has found the answers.
And you’ve sent us a lot of questions. miamiherald.com/news/curious30…
Like why is it so crazy hard to get an appointment at the DMV? Will life be this way forever? miamiherald.com/news/curious30…
Many of those arrested in DeSantis’ push against voter fraud said they thought they could vote because the state had issued them voter ID cards. That’s key: To break the law their actions had to be “willful.”
So Florida quietly made a tweak that may boost prosecutions later 🧵
A week after those arrests, the DeSantis administration made a change: Floridians on probation are now required to sign an updated form placing the burden on them to determine whether they’re eligible to vote. miamiherald.com/news/politics-…
Beneath warnings about remaining drug-free and reporting to their probation officer is the new message: