1/ The global elites and financiers we exposed are now under threat. For two years, we've unraveled a criminal empire that has stolen billions from Americans. Today, Western governments are closing in. This is a reporter's notebook. A thread 🧵 2/ It began with a single, bizarre detail. A South African stock scammer bought a $30M private jet for a Cambodian princeling. Why? It felt like a curiosity, a glimpse into a world of dirty money we couldn't yet understand. The trail went cold. whalehunting.projectbrazen.com/private-jets-c…

Earlier this year, Sam Altman rolled out his identification crypto Worldcoin project in Bangkok -- but local authorities had concerns about scanning people's irises for crypto rewards. Enter a mysterious South African criminal called Benjamin Mauerberger to smooth the way. 1/7 👇 2. Altman connected to Mauerberger, who promised to get Thailand's ruling Shinawatra family to support Worldcoin's controversial mission. He delivered: Altman's co-founder took the stage with former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra at a major event. But who was Mauerberger?

🚨 Sam Altman’s Worldcoin got caught in a $1.5B China-linked scam network fleecing Americans—unwittingly tied to criminals. Brazen’s bombshell scoop: #Worldcoin #CryptoScams 👇1/6 Sam Altman partnered for Worldcoin's launch in Bangkok with a company linked to Benjamin Mauerberger, a South African front for a global criminal network that scams Americans out of their life savings. (No evidence Altman knew of the criminal connections.) 2/6

The $1.5 billion Chinese-Cambodian criminal network we've exposed has a dark secret: the yachts, planes and NYC luxury penthouses are funded by trafficked workers and American victims. This compound is where is all starts 🧵 1/ This is the Long Bay project in Cambodia. It was supposed to be a Chinese-financed luxury tourism, residential, and office project. It failed -- and instead its offices are home to scam centers, where trafficked workers are compelled to scam U.S. victims. 2/

This guy is the new Jho Low, just white and with a Cambodian diplomatic passport. Moving billions via shell companies. Protected by powerful leaders. Likes his private jets and yachts. And now he's hunted by U.S. intelligence. Here's his story. 1/13 Meet Benjamin Mauerberger, 47, from a prominent Jewish family in South Africa. He sold worthless stocks to mom and pop investors in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Like the 2000 movie "Boiler Room." But then authorities in the West came after him, so he holed up in Bangkok. 2/13

This guy is the new Jho Low, just white and with a Cambodian diplomatic passport. Moving hundreds of millions of dollars via shell companies. Protected by powerful leaders (Thaksin, Hun Sen). Likes his private jets and yachts. Here's his story. Meet Benjamin Mauerberger, a 47-year-old South African, wanted for boiler room stock frauds in London and NZ dating back 25 years. He reappears as "Ben Smith" in Cambodia, a country known for washing Chinese money via casinos/land. He becomes friends with the Deputy PM's son.

EXCLUSIVE: At a Thai restaurant in Bangkok, a secret meeting took place in April 2025 between Thaksin Shinawatra and a convicted criminal fixer for Cambodia's elite. We have the photo. Read on. 1/5 The fixer, Benjamin Mauerberger, was negotiating the purchase of a new $60M private jet for Thaksin. Why would Thailand's most powerful political figure rely on a criminal with deep ties to Cambodia's underworld? 2/5

This is perhaps America's most successful serial squatter. How did she get there? (She's not even American.)

Step 1/5: Pose as a Hollywood screenwriter and post many photos in which you appear to be close to huge stars. Step 2/5: Look for marks on the beaches of Malibu and other expensive rental areas. Not just anyone but the families of Hollywood casting directors, real estate magnates and more. Pretend your screenplay is about to make big bucks, and move in "for a few days."

This guy, Mark Lombardi, was a famous artist who believed a hidden network of powerful individuals ruled the world. But he’d die before he could prove it. 1/ Lombardi created art that looked like this. He claimed it showed the links between dark networks that controlled governments: politicians, banks, arms dealers.

This guy, Fat Leonard, just got 15 years in jail for a decades-long scandal in which he bribed US Navy admirals with prostitutes, Cristal, and Chanel handbags for their wives. What happened to the admirals you might ask? In 2021, Project Brazen smuggled a microphone to Leonard, who was in detention in San Diego, awaiting sentencing. He’d pleaded guilty but was furious Navy admirals had got off scot-free, and so he talked for our Fat Leonard podcast. podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/fat…

One of the largest chemical attacks in U.S. history was on a Furries convention. Scores of Furries —humans dressed as cats, dogs and lions — were hospitalized after a chlorine gas bomb (the kind used in WWI) was detonated at a Chicago hotel. But the culprits were never found. 1/ No one seemed to care about the Furries getting attacked. They’re just weirdos, right? Here’s Mika on Morning Joe falling about laughing at the attack. 2/

Fat Leonard, a military contractor known for organizing and filming orgies involving senior U.S. Navy admirals, is on his way back to San Diego to face sentencing for corruption over a year after he fled to Venezuela. /thread It’s one of the US’s worst ever national security breaches. For years, Leonard arranged prostitutes for some of the Navy’s top admirals. In return, he bilked the Navy of millions by overcharging for fuel, food and security. He lived in this $40 million house in Singapore!

The Italian mafia stole this masterpiece by Caravaggio in 1969 from a church in Sicily. Today it's worth $100 million and one of the world's most wanted paintings. It has become a symbol of the mob's power over the state. Now, one desperate man is trying to get it back. 1/6 William Veres, a British art dealer, was arrested in 2018 for trafficking in stolen art and given a deal by Italy's anti-mafia police: find the Caravaggio and be spared 20 years in jail. 2/6

In 1993, Michael Jackson knew a bombshell was coming. So he escaped to Bangkok, where he got involved in a standoff with Thailand's royal family. For this and other never-before-heard stories, listen to NIGHT OF SHOW on @ApplePodcasts Subscribe 👉: apple.co/night-of-show 🧵 1/9 MJ knew the LAPD was about to announce investigations into the first ever sexual abuse allegations against him. So he left the US two weeks early for Bangkok, where he was due to kick off the Asian leg of the "Dangerous" world tour. 2/9

When the saxophonist Kenny G snapped a photo with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong in 2014, China's government branded him a spy. To get out of the fix, Kenny put in a call to pro-Beijing actor Jackie Chan ...🧵 To understand this crazy story, you've got to know that Kenny G is perhaps the best known Western artist in China. His song, "Going Home" comes on when shopping malls close and when planes land. Adam Wilkes, Kenny's promoter, was on a plane once with Kenny...

In 1983, James Watt, President Reagan's moralizing interior secretary, banned The Beach Boys from playing July 4th on the Mall. The band was furious, but they turned the situation to their advantage ...🧵 Nancy Reagan had just launched her "Just Say No to Drugs" campaign. And so James Watt tried to suck up to her, banning The Beach Boys and other undesirable elements from playing a July 4th free concert in DC.

Terrible for the Met. Cambodian master dancer Sophiline Cheam writes in @hyperallergic about her protest in Met: “About two minutes into my brief dance a member of the museum’s security team approached me and stated that I wasn’t allowed to dance.” hyperallergic.com/809442/met-mus… 🧵 “But in that trancelike state, I was unprepared to be interrupted. In fact, in my over 40 years of dancing, no one has ever told me to stop. Though I obliged without protest, I was thrown off balance,” Sophiline writes in @hyperallergic. See the moment here:

BREAKING: Fugitive Jho Low controls $333 million via a British Virgin Islands company that has offices in the iconic Shanghai World Financial Center! Is this where he goes to work? Listen here:
Jho Low is hardly hiding! "Grace Zenith" a Low-controlled BVI with $333 million in subscribed capital, has an office at Room 2801-01, 28th Floor, Shanghai World Financial Center, documents show.

Fat Leonard was heading to Russia after entering Venezuela via Mexico and Cuba after going on the run 18!days ago, according to the Insta account of this Venezuelan Interpol official. Why Russia? Well it's involved in a proxy war with the US in Ukraine. Leonard would have been an amazing asset. He has sexual kompromat (videos and photos of Navy officers in orgies) stored away, as he told me for our podcast. Listen to this audio clip:

Waiting for CNN, Fox, MSNBC to take on Fat Leonard story: the incompetency that led to his escape and the Navy coverup of the past decade. 🦗 🦗 🦗 Story has been woefully underplayed, but it’s changing…Now we’ve located him in Venezuela, on the run, what happens next? Listen on @ApplePodcasts podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/fat…

BREAKING: Fat Leonard, who escaped from U.S. custody two weeks ago, is in Venezuela with his eldest son, likely on way to Brazil, according to a report in @WhaleHunting_. Sign up for free to read: whalehunting.projectbrazen.com/we-reveal-fat-… Leonard was set to be sentenced Thursday for his role in a $35 million scandal to defraud the U.S. Navy. But he fled on Sept. 4, cutting his GPS ankle device and leaving his house in San Diego (center).