How They Did It: The Azerbaijani Laundromat

In September, the Danish national newspaper Berlingske, in partnership with the OCCRP and other international media partners, exposed a complex money laundering scheme led by Azerbaijan’s elite. The stories revealed that, between 2012 and 2014, $2.9 billion connected to the country was siphoned through European companies and banks. Here’s how they got the story.

How Can Online Research Tools Help Investigative Reporters?

How can online research tools aid the work of investigative reporters and others looking into transnational financial flows, corporate structures and other illicit activities of organized crime and global business? Google and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) brought together a small group of investigative journalists and technologists from around the world to examine the answers to this question at their first Investigathon in London last month.

Tactical Technology Video Looks at Investigative Journalism

The Tactical Technology Collective, a Berlin-based group of tech activists, is producing a series of web documentaries on “new forms of investigative journalism.” Its first video, Our Currency Is Information, takes a look at cross-border investigative techniques through the eyes of Romanian journalist Paul Radu. The accompanying website has a transcript of the full interview with Radu, plus a worthwhile resource page with digital tools for research, security, and data visualization.

Why Open Data Isn’t Enough

Hacks and hackers meetups. Open government initiatives. Hackathons and datafests. The media development world has discovered big data, and it is embracing it big time. Donors like the Knight and Omidyar foundations are focused almost exclusively on tech fixes to what ails the media. As one prominent donor told a nonprofit newsroom executive, “We no longer fund content.”