… Why the Dr. Seuss 'cancellation' is chilling
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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.
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