Senior Reporter and Global Partnership Coordinator with @examinationnews. Former reporter @icijorg #panamapapers #pandorapapers (etc) #shadowdiplomats. CAMS
Dec 30, 2022 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/ Few months ago, I found declassified WWII docs showing how Germany and Nazis used honorary consuls as spies and other helpers
propublica.org/article/shadow…2/ All in all, @debbiecenziper and I found about 20 honorary consuls suspected of supporting the Third Reich thru espionage and other activities, including smuggling jewels, spreading propaganda.
They were based in places like Brazil, Mexico, Bulgaria, the Gold Coast and Spain
Nov 14, 2022 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
We reporters searched court records, media archives and other sources in dozens of languages to find 500+ past and current honorary consuls accused of wrongdoing. Many had abused their diplomatic status.
Wyoming doesn't need to change its transparency laws, one prominent attorney said.
Guess what didn't get said? An affiliate of the attorney's law firm helped a Russian oligarch get a Wyoming trust.
Public records and #pandorapapers documents show a registered agent affiliated with law firm Long Reimer and Winegar helped Igor Makarov set up a private trust company.
@itsmikeyin, a Democrat at the hearing, told me he wishes he had known about the link
washingtonpost.com/business/2022/…
In Alaska, representatives introduced a bill to require trust settlors and beneficiaries to identify themselves.
“When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, I reflected on all the ways a state could have an impact on wealth that oligarchs…might be able to hide,” said Zack Fields (D).
Dec 20, 2021 • 10 tweets • 7 min read
NEW: Move over Brokeback Mountain!
#pandorapapers show another side of Wyoming - rare insights into international clients flocking to America’s least populated state, making it a global tax haven.
washingtonpost.com/business/inter…
Attorneys and wealth managers advertise Wyoming for low taxes, “hands-off” approach and highly secretive company and trust industry.
Experts rank Wyoming as 1 of the world's least restrictive trust jurisdictions in the world.
Come to Wyoming! Russian, Singaporean and others say
Oct 7, 2021 • 22 tweets • 16 min read
.@ICIJorg's #pandorapapers investigation is the largest ever involving African reporters. This is the core of what @ICIJorg does - no other organization gets close to our commitment to global partnerships.
@debbiecenziper found a key file from #pandorapapers listing Americans with secretive trusts in Belize.
Robert Durst? ✅
Marc-Collins Rector ✅
Fraudsters ✅
This wild story grew from there washingtonpost.com/business/inter…2/ We honed in on CILTrust, an offshore provider that helps people set up trusts and companies in Belize, a little-known Central American tax haven.
CILTrust, once CitiTrust, is part owned by Glenn Godfrey, a former attorney general.
Oct 4, 2021 • 9 tweets • 6 min read
1/ When @ICIJorg first got the #pandorapapers, I wanted to see what we could learn about the U.S. as a tax haven. I’d heard rumors, but wanted to see WHO and WHAT was using secrecy inside the US.
1/ @ICIJorg’s new investigation - #FinCENFiles - is our largest collaboration with journalists in Africa so far. There are new faces for us in Togo, Cameroon, The Gambia and beyond.
A thread with nearly all the African stories.
2/ We spend huge resources, time and energy being the best cross-border investigative news organization on the planet. Collaboration isn’t cheap or easy. This time around for #FinCENFiles we had support from @CENOZO_Afrique and @freepressunltd. cenozo.org/en/articles/24…
Sep 20, 2020 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
1/ When @ICIJorg started the #FinCENFiles investigation 1 year ago, I thought I’d do what I usually do – work with great partners in places like Liberia, Turkmenistan, beyond. Then Covid19 happened.
But collaboration means we could do our work despite a global lockdown.
2/ I found myself reporting from North Carolina about a family devastated by fentanyl, a deadly opioid, and the financial circuit it had taken from China to the Tar Heel State.
1/ #mauritiusLeaks is @ICIJorg’s latest offshore project. It started with a story we wrote in 2017 as part of the #paradisepapers investigation and continued when an anonymous source sent us a USB key in the mail that contained 200,000 files (thank you, whistleblower!)
2/ This was hard, dry stuff. No juicy emails to or from presidents or prime ministers trying to hide money. Instead, it was about a bunch of profitable companies trying to pay less money to rich and poor countries around the world.
