Welcome back!
We’re thrilled to share that our award-winning team is growing! Our new hires include some exciting new reporters, expanding our capacity to tackle the most important investigative stories in the world.
Reporter Maggie Michael joins us from Cairo. She was previously a reporter for the Associated Press, covering conflict in Yemen and Libya, investigating secret prisons and devastating civilian casualties in Iraq. She’s part of the AP team that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for a yearlong series on atrocities of the war in Yemen. As an Egyptian journalist, Maggie brings 15 years of experience covering the Middle East to ICIJ.
Reporter Brenda Medina also joined our team this year. Brenda was previously a senior reporting fellow at ProPublica, and reported for the Miami Herald/el Nuevo Herald in English and Spanish. A native of the Dominican Republic, Brenda studied journalism and international studies at the University of South Florida and Hillsborough Community College.
And Sean McGoey is ICIJ’s 2021 editorial fellow as part of the Scripps Howard Foundation’s Roy W. Howard Fellowship program. Sean has worked as a data and graphics reporter for Capital News Service and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, covering education, housing and the 2020 presidential election. He’ll be producing stories and audio for ICIJ and contributing data work for ongoing projects.
And late last year, our fundraising department also welcomed Lia Peck as donor member specialist and Lauren Tran, as development and outreach manager.
We’re incredibly proud to see our team grow and are looking forward to working together to deliver more groundbreaking investigations this year.
DIRTY MONEY COTTAGE INDUSTRY
Data journalist Karrie Kehoe explains how our team combined public data with leaked FinCEN reports to uncover $4.5 billion in unreported income and expenditures — exposing how criminals wash dirty money clean through the U.K. financial system.
SWISS LEAKS, SIX YEARS ON
A lot has changed since we published Swiss Leaks in February 2015. The investigation, based on 60,000 leaked files from HSBC's private Swiss bank, revealed how bankers helped shelter millions in accounts linked to arms dealers, dictators and tax evaders. Since then, countries continue to use the leaked details to chase lost tax revenue – including, most recently, in India and Malta — and Switzerland now automatically exchanges financial details with other countries to help stop tax cheats hiding their money in secretive Swiss accounts. But some things remain the same: Switzerland is still ranked by the Tax Justice Network as one of the most secretive jurisdictions in the world; and, as the FinCEN Files showed late last year, global banks, including HSBC, continue to play a pivotal role in the flow of dirty money around the world. As for ICIJ? Our investigations continue.
SELDEN RING AWARD
FinCEN Files was recognized as a finalist for the 2021 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. Judges called the series “a massive feat of investigative reporting giving readers an unprecedented look inside the shadowy world of international finance,”and praised the project for its immediate impact.
See you at NICAR, MozFest, and SXSW!
ICIJ team members will be presenting on using data to report inequities at NICAR, Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc.’s annual data journalism conference, on March 3; how artificial intelligence can help investigative journalism at the Mozilla Festival on March 9; and fixing broken financial systems at South by Southwest Online, which is taking place March 16 to 20.
Thanks for reading!
Asraa Mustufa
ICIJ's digital editor
P.S. If you've enjoyed our coverage this week, remember to tell your friends and family and share our work on social media. Send them an email now!
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