Thread by @AIJC_Conference

NEXT: @ICIJorg's latest investigation, the FinCEN Files, which reveal the role of global banks in industrial-scale money laundering for politicians, criminals and more. Investigative journalists @KarrieKehoe, @GoldenMatonga, @WillFitzgibbon and Sandrine Sawadoga are on the panel

The #FinCENFiles investigation includes the work of over 400 journalists across the continent. It is the @ICIJorg's largest investigation to date #AIJC2020

.@WillFitzgibbon starts with a short video on the #FinCENFiles. It highlights the role of big banks like Barclays and others in money laundering, even though many have paid fines for similar activities in the past #AIJC2020

.@WillFitzgibbon says there is simply not enough incentive for banks to stop their involvement because the bank fees they make from these transactions are huge #AIJC2020

Fitzgibbon: While the investigation was initially "leak driven" a lot of other work had to be done to get additional data and stories from other countries, to bring the investigation together #AIJC2020

Data journalist @KarrieKehoe says they had to look into over $2 trillion worth of suspicious activity from 1999 to 2017 to build a dataset #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

.@KarrieKehoe we hosted a "data party" to work through all these transactions with other journalists. It took close to a year to fact check all of the data #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

Kehoe: Some banks were waiting for years to report any suspicious activities, even though they are legally obliged to disclose #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

With this information is now presented in a detailed map of countries and prominent people's involved in any suspicious activities #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

Sandrine Sawadoga from Burkina Faso says it took close to six months to gather the information she needed to properly investigate one suspected shell company involved in trading weapons #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

Sawadoga: The network of @ICIJorg journalists were pivotal in helping me uncover certain aspects of my investigation. I wasn't working in a silo, collaboration was very important #FinCENFiles

Sawadoga says, in the end, a few lines in a document was all the evidence she needed to finally bring her investigation together #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

Investigative journalist, @GoldenMatonga, from Malawi says cross country communication was the first big hump they needed to get over to start collaborating with other journalists. Training was needed to perfect this #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

Matonga: Getting over 400 journalists to agree on a publication date was another huge learning curve which required compromise

.@GoldenMatonga says 29 suspicious payments to UK PR firm, Bell Pottinger from former head of state, Joyce Banda through Barclays Bank, was all it took to uncover their part of the investigation #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

Sawadogo answers a question of working in different languages, she says Google translate was not the way to go, having the network of journalists and dedicated lawyers across the world was a much better resource #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

.@KarrieKehoe: Covid-19 was definitely one of the biggest challenges to his project - with shrinking budgets in newsrooms, this massive global pandemic to cover and no one being allowed to film or report in the ways they are used to - it was tough #FinCENFiles #AIJC2020

.@WillFitzgibbon ends off the sesison by saying "watch this space", as the #FinCENFiles are already having some impact with politicians in the UK and US calling for reform in the banking sector in the last few weeks #AIJC2020