If you're looking for a Sunday morning read, our website team spent a lot of time writing code to make the animations on this article work, so give it a look, will ya? www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-...

In case you missed it: our investigation into how Sky Bet relocated to Malta to avoid £55m of tax/year This kind of thing is often reported as "perfectly proper, and there's no suggestion that any laws were broken". But here it looks improper. Laws may have been broken. 🧵

Last month, five Peruvian investigative outlets, including several ICIJ media partners, filed constitutional petitions in Lima courts to challenge the so-called “APCI Law,” passed by Peru’s Congress in April and enacted soon after by its then president.

So rich soccer fans (or those pretending to be soccer fans & who buy a ticket) get a special visa portal & priority over students, scientific researchers, children in need of medical care in the US, etc. Says a lot about US govt values these days 🇺🇸 www.wired.com/story/the-us...

“PennState trustee Paterno questioned the need for secrecy…Given that the Big10 is about to create “a for-profit company using what are essentially public dollars,” he argued, boards need to know more in order to be able to advise their insts accordingly.” www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Fun fact: The Tates and Trump Org use the same bank: Paxum bank. Paxum was created as niche bank for porn. It’s owned by the nephew of a former high ranking Russian official. A Paxum account gave Truth Social a loan for $8m www.icij.org/inside-icij/...

Article says Americans also took part in sick safari. Will the US govt investigate? Is there anyone left in FBI or DoJ currently who hasn’t been purged or reassigned to immigration enforcement to do so? www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...

Judge Mark Wolf, one of the leading proponents of an International Anti-Corruption Court—has very publicly resigned as a judge in this morning’s Atlantic Magazine www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

💥 BREAKING 💥 Scottish Government commits to anti-corruption strategy with improved transparency of trust structures (as proposed by Rhoda Grant in parliament). This is an important commitment that will help prevent kleptocrats and oligarchs investing their ill-gotten gains in Scottish property.

👀 Scoop: IRS Direct File, the free government-backed program that let you file your taxes for free, is dead. IRS wrote to state tax agencies saying it would not be operational this coming tax season, per records I've obtained. IRS Direct File: 2023-2025. (Story from when the pilot launched.)

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has died aged 84. The Republican politician was VP to President George W Bush from 2001-09 and was a key architect in the US ‘war on terror’. His death was announced in a statement by his family on Tuesday.

Extremity Care has secretly donated $2.5m toward the construction of a new WH ballroom…The WH publicly released a list of donors last month, but Extremity Care was not included. According to The New York Times, the company was permitted to donate anonymously. open.substack.com/pub/populari...

Wow! 🤯

Trump family will profit from links w 2x rypto betting firms where people can bet on economic issues/political contests where the Trump family has influence & non-public info 💰 Donald Trump’s Truth Social Is Launching a Polymarket Competitor | WIRED www.wired.com/story/trump-...

If #SpaceShuttleDiscovery could be moved without destroying it (which seems unlikely), the exhibit would no longer be free for the public to see…instead, the public would have to 💰. Below is the admissions prices for its destination, #SpaceCenterHouston.

In addition to the clear abuse of public authority for private company gain, many investors to AI data centers include authoritarian regimes (and their sovereign wealth funds) who partner with China. www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/...

At end of Trump’s 1st Admin, US passed legislation to end shell companies. At beginning of 2nd Trump Admin, Trump said he wouldn’t enforce those laws and his #FINCEN director said she wants to destroy the shell company database. National security nightmare www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

“By the time Chow and Davis launched $MELANIA in January, they had refined a “repeatable six-step ‘playbook’ for pump-and-dump fraud,” the investors claim.” #crypto #kleptocracy www.wired.com/story/melani...

"As of Monday, roughly 8 per cent of American warships deployed globally were in the Caribbean, according to a fleet tracker from the US Naval Institute." ft.com/content/dc10...

#Trump found a loophole so any POTUS can take extraordinary amounts of our tax payments and put it right in his pocket: just have his DOJ approve bogus lawsuits. 💰#kleptocracy #corruption www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

The wildest thing about every Trump pardon and commutation? “Mr. Santos will also no longer be required to pay more than $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to his victims…”

This Russian sovereign wealth fund is the RDIF and is considered Putin’s slush fund; it has a history of making deals with tons of red flags for corruption.

My alumni association is considering giving Charlie Kirk an honorary membership/degree despite his well-documented history of racist and misogynist comments. (His only ties to USAFA were a few months on the Board of Visitors as a political appointee.) www.stripes.com/theaters/us/...

"The undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division...to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations.... The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes..."

The former lobbying registrar, Harry Rich, appeared before the @houseofcommons.parliament.uk Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee this week to give his reflections on the measures the govt should be taking to improve lobbying transparency. 💭 Here’s a few thoughts from us... 🧵

Because so many companies pay bribes, citizens of kleptocracy find it is hard to be an ethical consumer. For example, if you have a Carrier a/c system, it’s not like you can stop using it. Or your Apple phone. Or using Amazon. Living ethically becomes impossible under state capture

Trump is already hitting up these same companies for an arch near Arlington Cemetery. When companies start paying bribes, it doesn’t stop; the bribee simply demands more. 💸 #Lockheed #Carrier #Amazon www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

How is October 2025 looking an awful lot like October 1929? An analysis from the historian who literally wrote the book on 1929. (P.S. A lot of these schemes are also used for money laundering.) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/m...

[Workers on] “H-2A visas…allowing farmers to pay migrant laborers less. It also shifts the burden for paying for worker housing from employer sponsors to migrant workers, with some exceptions.” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

What Thiel is saying about tax havens = what Altman is saying about copyright: "I can't be rich unless you let me steal from you." This is how Broligarchs differ from oligarchs of yore: the latter tried to hide their thievery; the Broligarchs trumpet their entitlement to steal as a natural right.

Note what is being considered so un-essential that Vought/Trump decided they can be permanently fired: those protecting us from cybersecurity attacks, fighting wildfires, elementary education, our financial system. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

A sports marketing firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to narrow an anti-fraud law after it was found guilty of its role in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials for broadcasting rights. www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

Wired - Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms to target people for deportation. www.wired.com/story/ice-socia...

🇲🇦 VIDEO: 'Clear demands': young Moroccans sustain week of protests Youth-led protests demanding reforms to public healthcare and education take place in Morocco's capital Rabat for a seventh day in a row.

Why would a Saudi sovereign wealth fund purchase a video game company for vastly more than what it’s worth? And why bring the president’s son-in-law onto the deal? Perhaps for reputation laundering, access to AI, cuddle up to Trump, etc.👇🏻 www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

$67m looks like a pretty big bribe by Florida lawmakers to Trump 💰 “The land is being used as a parking lot. It is in a prime location in downtown Miami, not far from Biscayne Bay, and is now valued at an estimated $67 million.” www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Sudan's civil war has seen a proliferation of anti-aircraft weapons: deadly drones, MANPADS, and truck-borne surface-to-air missile systems. Even Turkey's advanced Akinci drones, which the military used to help retake the capital, are getting shot down. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Delighted to share this #BriberyMatters blog post on TRACE International, in which our Executive Director @thomtownsend.bsky.social is interviewed by Marc Schleifer. Delve into this exploration of the #BeneficialOwnership, #transparency #AntiCorruption nexus👇 www.briberymatters.com/post/advanci...

“Is it that the Chief Justice doesn’t accept that the Court is losing credibility on a daily basis; that he thinks the Court doesn’t need that credibility in order to fulfill its intended role in our constitutional system; or that he doesn’t care?” Me on John Roberts as his Court turns 20 today:

🔥 EVENT: "Who Pays, Who Decides? Big Money in British Politics" Our executive director @suehawley.bsky.social joins Baroness Hodge, @liambyrnemp.bsky.social, @duncanhames.bsky.social, & @edhodgsoned.bsky.social on the panel for this crucial discussion at 4.30pm today. Check out the details below 👇

1. The $20 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package for Argentina, announced last week by the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, delivers an enormous windfall to hedge fund billionaire Rob Citrone. Citrone has a longstanding personal and professional relationship with Bessent.

“The infrastructure owners—SpaceX, Amazon, Meta, Google—will accumulate what amounts to sovereign power without sovereign responsibility…Algorithm changes that influence elections, network policies that enable or restrict speech… are already here.” www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

“Something started as a joke with a Shiba Inu as its character—why should that be a part of capital markets?” One group who may be thrilled is money launderers who may be able to create furballs of ETF trading activity with electronic monopoly money www.wired.com/story/memeco...

OMB instructing federal agencies to prepare RIF plans for mass firings during a possible government shutdown, reports Politico. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Long ago when I was on the Air Staff, even hints that a state AF Natl Guard might lose its planes led to barrage of Congressional letters to DoD. So no planes in MD seems like a bigger deal in civil military relations than this local news story framing www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Org crime needs a way to launder funds to make crime pay. Expect more of this as Trump admin has stopped enforcing anti-money laundering laws like the CTA and FCPA, defunded DoJ & other law enforcement, & implicit impunity for crypto from Trump inner circle businesses www.wired.com/story/sim-fa...

Democrats should become the anti-corruption party. 72% of voters think a member of Congress would likely accept a bribe if offered one. 80% say donors run DC. The solution isn’t left vs right, it’s clean vs corrupt. But first, Democrats must reform themselves and reject big money.

“What I found alarming was Walters’ seeming reckless disregard for protecting personal info. In order to take this dubious “assessment,” people are required to visit PragerU’s site and provide the California-based nonprofit with all sorts of personal info” www.newsfromthestates.com/article/i-to...

The Trump administration is canceling an annual government effort to gather data on how many Americans struggle to get enough food.