This story we helped DW uncover last week highlights just one of many contradictions in the nascent deep sea mining industry. From bluewashing to regulation with a USA-sized gap, the risk of corporate capture that threatens the global environment run deep. acdatacollective.org/work/deep-se...

📣 Online seminar Join us 2pm to 3pm (GMT) tomorrow for a #GIACE seminar on using leaked and sensitive data to research illicit finance with @szakonyi.bsky.social and Tom Mayne, chaired by @lizdavidbarrett.bsky.social. Held in collaboration with the Illicit Finance Data Lab. Register now 👇

Very happy to have had the chance to present our work (w. @mattcollin.bsky.social & @szakonyi.bsky.social) on the effects of the Economic Crime Bill and its beneficial ownership transparency on secretive real estate ownership in the UK.

🧵 New version of our paper (@bcegerod.bsky.social) is finally online: "How Many is Enough? Sample Size in Staggered Difference-in-Differences Designs" We show that even well-identified DiD studies are often underpowered; sample sizes needed are surprisingly large Paper: osf.io/preprints/os... 1/6

"Like refusing to finance an oil drilling site but still buying shares in the drilling company." Over 20 financial institutions have pledged not to finance deep sea mining, but several of the same banks invest in companies preparing to mine the seabed for minerals. 🤔 www.dw.com/en/the-hidde...

Amid the furore over US claims to Greenland, a close Trump ally has quietly gained control over a significant part of Germany’s energy infrastructure, including a pipeline company supplying military airfields.

On 5 February join @szakonyi.bsky.social @lizdavidbarrett.bsky.social & Tom Mayne for a deep dive into the potential for leaked data to underpin illicit finance research. David will present a new ACDC study into the effectiveness of de-risking as an AML tool, based on data from the #CongoHoldUp.

Recently published in @itaxjournal.bsky.social "Safely opening Pandora’s box: a guide for researchers working with leaked data" by Annette Alstadsæter, Matthew Collin ( @mattcollin.bsky.social ) & Andreas Økland (@andokl.bsky.social) Available at: rdcu.be/eZfQl

Nicolás Maduro Charged With Felony Oil Possession

Absolute lawlessness

Greatest cover-up in history?

Standard trolling by the admin, meant to distract. Challenge the move without letting it drown the news cycle!

I am hiring a post-doctoral fellow (2 years) to work on all things political finance in Africa. There are no teaching obligations, and lots of opportunities for fieldwork. A PhD in Political Science is a requirement. Please spread the word! Happy to answer questions - send them to my LSE email.

Further obvious evidence that allowing your cryptocurrency exchange to be used for money laundering is a really really bad idea decrypt.co/350490/coinb...

And just in time for the holidays! The perfect present for all your criminal and kleptocrat loved ones living abroad. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Epstein had kompromat on Trump and was prepared to take advantage of it

🤔unusual indeed

🤦‍♂️😈 "Thiel said that international financial bodies, which make it more difficult for people to shelter their wealth in tax havens, are one sign the antichrist may be amassing power & hastening Armageddon,saying: “It’s become quite difficult to hide one’s money.”" www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Come work with us!

Are you interested in research on corruption/illicit finance/kleptocracy? We are hiring a Research Fellow at @acdatacollective.bsky.social: acdatacollective.org/wp-content/u... Please share in your networks, this could be a great gig.

Academic friends, what is the best place to run representative surveys in the US that is reasonably affordable? Recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I have given in and started a Substack to write about illicit finance, development and data In my first post, I explain why we should be careful about citing the $312 billion statistic on the size of Chinese money laundering datadarkly.substack.com/p/exactly-ho...

The choice facing Switzerland is clear. It can cling to an outdated model of banking secrecy that represses press freedom, or it can align its laws with democratic standards, write Delphine Halgand-Mishra and @frederikobermaier.com. bit.ly/4p85SHj

Happy ERC Announcement Day, everyone! And huge huge congrats to Jacob. So well deserved.

Great to have @szakonyi.bsky.social present his new book project in the keynote speech at the WhoGov 2025 workshop at @statsvitenskap.bsky.social ! The last two days have been full of exciting presentations on elite research by a great group of researchers!

speechless

Today, @catiebailard.bsky.social and I take the reins at GW's Institute for Data, Democracy + Politics! We'll work to make IDDP a one-stop shop for research on misinfo, platform manipulation, and threats to democratic ideals. To follow our work + learn about opportunities, visit: bit.ly/45GLggi

We are really excited to welcome so many excellent scholars to Oslo for our WhoGov workshop/mini conference on political elites on September 1-2. If you are in or around Oslo and want to join for a session or a day, please reach out. You can find the program here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wp9m6...

New @publiccitizen.bsky.social report: The Trump admin is deleting enforcement against Big Tech lawbreaking amidst the industry's BILLION-dollar influence efforts. Turns out in Trump's techno-swamp, tech insiders are immune & "tough on crime" rhetoric is just for punishing the poor.

Very happy to announce the publication of Workplace Politics, with @szakonyi.bsky.social and Ora John Reuter. Drawing on data from 8 countries with a deep-dive on Russia, we examine when, why, and how politicians and employers pressure their workers to vote in elections. academic.oup.com/book/60445

#DRC🇨🇩: A new @pplaaf.bsky.social investigation reveals construction subcontracts worth $70M were awarded to a company linked to Minister Guy Loando."Fighting against impunity is essential to defend the public services that have been denied to the 🇨🇩 population." said PPLAAF. 🔗 👉: pplaaf.pro/4kQQBr5

Great article from @szakonyi.bsky.social on what is being lost with the closure of Russian election monitor Golos: www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/07/11/w...

It was painful to write an obituary, from an academic's perspective, for one of Russia's most important civil society organizations @themoscowtimes.com www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/07/11/w...

Our new report is out today!

Financial institutions are the arteries of modern economies—but when captured, they become pipelines for illicit wealth. @acdatacollective.bsky.social's new brief "Inside the Congo Hold-Up" shows how BGFIBank DRC was hijacked by the Kabila regime to launder public funds. 🔗 bit.ly/ACDCPolicyBr...

🚨New working paper🚨 w/ @jeannebomare.bsky.social We use data leaked from the Isle of Man to understand how well international agreements meant to provide tax authorities with info on foreign accounts actually work We find that tax authorities probably receive a lot less than they would desire 🧵👇

Join @szakonyi.bsky.social presenting our new paper on the schemes and tricks deployed at BGFIBank DRC to embezzle and launder public funds, as revealed by the #CongoHoldUp investigations.

What’s even more puzzling is that the media will cease to exist if they choose not to hold this current regime accountable and cover it for what it is

If I'm reading this correctly, then Yarvin wants the role of führer to be awarded via a Wings of Voice-style competition www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Good work here from my friend and colleague Andrei Yakovlev www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/putin...

10/🧵 Read my full analysis in my latest:

In retrospect, insanity

Investigate and make this a story about today. Especially if and when the SEC refuses to.

The surviving types of studio movies: - Brutal horror-comedy shot in Australia - Ordinary Man Has Awesome Kill Skills - Authorized musician biopic - Christian film that looks like Skyrizi ad - Arch auteurist bit from 31yo A24 guy - Christopher Nolan (biennial) - 2010-style raunch comedy (biennial)

Incredible line-up at this year's Russia Program event at GWU, April 18 here in DC I'll be there debuting work from my new book on technocrats Details and RSVP here 👇 therussiaprogram.org/conference_2...

But wait, there is more Great reporting by Der Spiegel, Full story: www.spiegel.de/internationa...

🚨 Developed by Transparency International and the @acdatacollective.bsky.social, the new Opacity in Real Estate Ownership (OREO) Index exposes major vulnerabilities in how countries prevent dirty money from entering property markets. Check it out! ➡️ anticorru.pt/3aq

Over 2 million people in the US have access to classified information, and would be punished immediately for divulging “attack plans”. Same goes for all those in uniform Trump letting his team get off creates huge electoral vulnerabilities

Transparency works, but only with enforcement and public access! Check out our brand new OREO Index that launched today from @acdatacollective.bsky.social and @anticorruption.bsky.social : www.transparency.org/en/news/unve...

But we were told that appeasing dictators would deter them from further abusing their power?