Part 1: The Company That Bribed The World.
From the post:
A massive leak of confidential documents has for the first time exposed the true extent of corruption within the oil industry, implicating dozens of leading companies, bureaucrats and politicians in a sophisticated global web of bribery and graft.
After a six-month investigation across two continents, Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post can reveal that billions of dollars of government contracts were awarded as the direct result of bribes paid on behalf of firms including British icon Rolls-Royce, US giant Halliburton, Australia’s Leighton Holdings and Korean heavyweights Samsung and Hyundai.
The investigation centres on a Monaco company called Unaoil, run by the jet-setting Ahsani clan. Following a coded ad in a French newspaper, a series of clandestine meetings and midnight phone calls led to our reporters obtaining hundreds of thousands of the Ahsanis’ leaked emails and documents.
The trove reveals how they rub shoulders with royalty, party in style, mock anti-corruption agencies and operate a secret network of fixers and middlemen throughout the world’s oil producing nations.
Corruption in oil production – one of the world’s richest industries and one that touches us all through our reliance on petrol – fuels inequality, robs people of their basic needs and causes social unrest in some of the world’s poorest countries. It was among the factors that prompted the Arab Spring.
Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post today reveal how Unaoil carved up portions of the Middle East oil industry for the benefit of western companies between 2002 and 2012.
In part two we will turn to the impoverished former Russian states to reveal the extent of misbehaviour by multinational companies including Halliburton. We will conclude the three-part investigation by showing how corrupt practices have extended deep into Asia and Africa.
…
Truly awesome story!
After six months of work, both Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post deserve all the traffic and kudos that can be driven to them!
However, after some suitable time period, say six months to a year, this treasure trove of criminality should be released to the public.
I have little doubt about the non-pursuit of potential American defendants, especially those associated with Halliburton (can you say “Dick Cheney?”)
Public release of this data leak, as I said after both Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post have been rewarded for their great work, may help grease frozen wheels of justice for some defendants.
If grease doesn’t work, perhaps extra-judicial justice will find some of the more “untouchable” criminals named in the data leak.
Personally I would be very interested in mapping from the known relationships (a/k/a associations) to presently unknown associations with public officials in the US, both appointed and elected.
There would be a particular joy in seeing sitting members of Congress tagged with criminal misconduct.
No club Fed for then former members of Congress. Recommend rendering them to Zambia or similar places.
Update 31 March 2016:
Part 2: Unaoil: Police Launch Joint Global Investigation
Part 2 of this extraordinary story is up!
Apologies but I omitted the credits for this reporting in my original post:
REPORTERS Nick McKenzie (chief reporter), Richard Baker, Michael Bachelard & Daniel Quinlan EDITOR Michael Bachelard COPY EDITORS Michael Coulter & Kate Cole-Adams DESIGN Mark Stehle & Joe Benke BUILD Matthew Absalom-Wong, Nathanael Scott & Soren Frederiksen VIDEO Tim Young & Kelly Bergsma CONSULTANT Luke McMahon
Kudos to one and all!
Update 03 April 2016:
Part 3: UNAOIL: Dark Secrets of Asian Powers.
From the post:
Asian companies such as Hyundai, Samsung, Sinopec and Petronas are household names. But they have dark secrets. In the latest in Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post’s global bribery expose, these firms and more are implicated for paying kickbacks, money laundering and corruption.
Here’s a taste of the key players to pique your interest in following this story in your country.