Thursday, March 11, 2021

The State Department has sanctioned a “confidential client” we featured in the FinCEN Files

 … Why the Dr. Seuss 'cancellation' is chilling


The Herald revealed last week that Landcom, which is the government’s property development arm, agreed last June to pay Bradcorp $258 million for the 873-hectare block at Wilton, which was $102 million more than the developer’s valuer had estimated it was worth just 12 months earlier.

Brogden says long-term friendship with developer was a ‘manageable conflict’



Big news from the United States: The State Department has sanctioned a “confidential client” we featured in the FinCEN Files.

Ihor Kolomoisky, a powerful Ukrainian billionaire under investigation for allegedly orchestrating one of the biggest bank heists in history, is barred from entering the U.S.

The oligarch and several associates are accused of funneling hundreds of millions in fraudulent loans obtained from Ukraine’s largest bank, which he co-owned, through shell companies into the U.S. — where the money was plowed into real estate.

Our reporting showed how Kolomoisky secretly amassed a Midwest property empire with the help of Deutsche Bank — and the toll this took on local communities, factory conditions, and steelworkers. The investigation shed light on the human impact that dirty money can have when landlords take control of buildings and workplaces to clean their cash.

U.S. prosecutors are now seeking to seize some of the properties that Kolomoisky and others purchased in their real estate buying spree.

The sanctions topped off a week of impact directly connected to several ICIJ investigations, including Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, and Luanda Leaks.

SECRET GUILTY PLEA
Newly released court documents reveal that a third person has admitted to financial crimes uncovered by Panama Papers in a U.S. probe sparked by the investigation.

GATEWAY TO MONEY LAUNDERING
A trust company was fined for ignoring “obvious” risks of possible corruption in an investment scheme involving Angola’s first family, the country’s sovereign wealth fund



and tycoon Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, as exposed in the Paradise Papers investigation.

MALTA TAX BILL
A firm owned by Isabel dos Santos now owes the Maltese tax agency more than $275,000 due to a probe launched after the Luanda Leaks investigation.

WIN WIN
ICIJ was shortlisted for the prestigious WIN WIN Gothenburg Sustainability Award, which recognized five anti-corruption heroes from around the world as finalists for its 2021 prize. FinCEN Files was also named a finalist for the Scripps Howard Awards’ Ursula and Gilbert Farfel Prize for excellence in national/international investigative reporting.

ROYAL FAMILY MONEY
This week’s ‘Megxit’ interview, in which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle said they were financially cut off from the British monarchy, renews attention on how secretly guarded the royal family’s money and assets are. A recent Guardian investigation showed how Queen Elizabeth successfully shielded her private wealth from public view, and Paradise Papers reporting on the monarch and Prince Charles’ offshore connections spelled scandal for the clan in 2017.