Is the art market a haven for dirty money?
You’ve probably heard of blood diamonds, but what about blood antiquities? Today, most trappings of wealth – like cash, diamonds or gold – are subject to stringent regulation. But not fine art and ant...
4 Sep 202430min
From The Lever: Who Broke The Economy?
Thanks for listening to season two of Whale Hunting! The podcast will be back very soon with brand new episodes on everything from cultural racketeering to grassroots war reporting, murky offshore jur...
21 Aug 202446min
Why is London the libel capital of the world?
A furious letter from a smartly-named law firm is almost par for the course for journalists on the crime and corruption beat. From oligarchs and dictators to badly behaved billionaires, many have enli...
14 Aug 202441min
Who is Li Fangwei, the Chinese phantom?
In recent years, Philipp Grüll has spent almost all his time reporting on arms deals. He’s considered something of a specialist, so when his colleague Frederik Obermaier approached him with questions ...
7 Aug 202434min
How do kleptocrats and dictators launder their reputation in the US?
In the US, all American citizens have the constitutional right to lobby their representatives in Washington DC. It’s a right that has come in handy over the years as foreign powers, dictators and klep...
31 Jul 202432min
Are journalists con artists?
"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that [...] he is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance or loneliness, gaining ...
24 Jul 202436min
Betrayal, Insurgency, and Understanding Afghanistan
No nation faced more devastating consequences in the aftermath of 9/11 than Afghanistan. At least, that’s what Sune Rasmussen observed in his six years living and reporting from the country in the mid...
17 Jul 202430min
Sudden Russian Death Syndrome
It’s a precarious time for the Russian elite. Caught up in the invasion of Ukraine and an immovable dictator, the noblesse russe have to tip-toe through economic and political conflict to survive. In ...
10 Jul 202419min
