The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Switzerland" ...
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What Killed Arafat?
This 50-minute film was the result of a nine month long cold case investigation into the suspicious death of Yasser Arafat, Palestine's iconic, revolutionary leader. After obtaining Arafat's entire original medical files, Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit, led by producer and reporter Clayton Swisher, crossed continents to track down and interview the French, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian doctors who had worked to save Arafat's life. Part I of "What Killed Arafat?" was able to easily shatter popular myths about what caused Arafat's precipitous decline from the onset of his illness on October 12, 2004 until his death on November 11th. Testimony from Arafat's doctors conclusively ruled out liver cirrhosis, cancer, even rumors of HIV. The scientific, evidence-based discoveries made in the Part II result from the work performed by a team of forensic pathologists, toxicologists, and radiation physicists from the University Center for Legal Medicine and Institute for Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland. Working without payment, they agreed to run a battery of sophisticated tests on a large gym bag containing Arafat’s last personal effects. The scientists discovered significant levels of reactor-made Polonium 210 contaminating areas of Arafat's personal effects that came into contact with his biological fluids. When the final results came back in late June, Al Jazeera hosted Mrs. Arafat in Doha to watch the Swiss explain the results on set. Upon witnessing their testimony, Ms. Arafat made a resolute, unanticipated surprise announcement, calling on the Palestinian Authority to exhume her husband's body for testing. Yasser Arafat’s body was exhumed on November 27, 2012 so that the final samples could be retrieved. Whether the causes of Arafat's death are determined to be natural, inconclusive—or even murder—suffice it to say that Al Jazeera’s "What Killed Arafat?" and the resulting investigations and exhumation will have inched the world closer to understanding what did not, and possibly for the first time, what did claim the life of this historic and controversial personality.
Tags: Science; death; biology; investigation; exhumation; testing
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Shell Games Series
As he sought out the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama called for greater corporate transparency around the world. His criticism focused on the forgiving laws of locales outside U.S. borders- from Switzerland to the Cayman Islands. In a multi-part series called "Shell Games", Reuters revealed equally egregious practices on America'a own shores, where business incorporation laws in some states are more lax than those of Somalia.
Tags: Barack Obama; U.S. Border; Somalia; Transparency; borders
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"A Crack in the Swiss Vault"
This investigative story takes an in-depth look into offshore banking, specifically in Switzerland. Bradley Birkenfeld is an American citizen serving extensive prison time for revealing to the U.S. Government that "he and his colleagues" had been secretly helping their "American customers evade hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes" through private banking divisions in Geneva.
Tags: taxes; tax evasion; Geneva; Switzerland; UBS; banking; investments; IRS; Department of Justice
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Sizing Up: BNP Joins Bank Quest For Bigness, but It Is No Industry Cure-All
Is bigger really better? The Journal addresses the question in light of ongoing bank mergers. The story finds that "while mergers can help banks cut costs and gain customers, they won't necessarily stave off of the forces that have been making banks less important as sources of capital and advice." The article includes tables of the top ten biggest banks in the world in 1998 and 1988, ranked by assets.
Tags: deregulation; Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP); investment banking; UBS AG; Europe; Switzerland; Japan
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Security Cracks at the White House, Should Ultrak Guard Nuclear Labs?
Insight reports on problems with a computer security system installed at the White House in 2001. The stories reveal that the system had once been down for a day; had not been tested but the factory before being installed; frequently gives inaccurate information about White House guests. A major finding is that security system lead contractor, Ultrak, Inc., has been taken over by Niklaus Zenger of Switzerland, who has ties to the Russian military.
Tags: Secret Service; intelligence; FBI; president; Securities and Exchange Commission; corporate interests; national security
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Arrested Italian cell sheds light on Bin Laden;s network
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, reveals that month before Sept. 11 terrorist attacks the Italian police arrested men now believed to be al Qaeda operatives. Based on the findings in a 100-page secret report by Italian investigators, the article tells "a stunning story of cooperation among suspected Bin Laden cells across Europe ... and previously unknown connections among alleged Bin Laden loyalists in Italy, Britain, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and France."
Tags: September 11; 2001; al Qaeda; holy war; Chechnya; Bosnia; Muslims; Islam; justice; law enforcement; intelligence
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Untouchable: A Swiss Probe Finds a Kremlin Connection And a Wall of Silence
The Wall Street Journal sheds light on a case that ties Pavel Borodin, the old boss of the Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin, to money laundering in Switzerland. The story reveals that Borodin opened two private accounts at SBS, a big Swiss bank, and in two years "more than $15 million sluiced through these private accounts..." The reporter cites Swiss officials who say the money came from Mercata Trading & Engineering SA, a Swiss-based, Russian run company." The article describes Borodin's detention in New York and the investigation against him, and points out that Russian officials have been unwilling to provide help on this case.
Tags: international politics; dirty funds; Mafia; finance; banks; Boris Yeltsin; Vladimir Putin; Geneva; Kremlin Security Council; KGB; investigation; prosecution; promissory notes
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Open for Business: While Marc Rich Was Fugitive, Firm Dealt With Pariah Nations
A team of Wall Street Journal reporters from around the globe reports that while fugitive billionaire Marc Rich worked to clear his name of criminal allegations, his trading empire also worked hard -- "landing some of the same sorts of deals that helped him get into trouble in the first place." Rich, who received a pardon from President Clinton before he left the White House, was indicted in 1983 on tax-evasion charges. Prosecutors also charged that Rich bought "about $200 million worth of oil from Iran while revolutionaries...held 53 Americans hostage there in 1979-81...Mr. Rich was never tried because he fled to Switzerland and renounced his American citizenship before being indicted." After he moved to Switzerland, Rich's business, unfettered by American trade restrictions, "not only conducted additional deals in Iran, it also traded with Libya, Cuba and South Africa, all at times when U.S. citizens and companies were barred from doing so." Although Rich's business practices since leaving the U.S. have not been illegal, they do "raise new questions about the wisdom of pardoning him."
Tags: Marc Rich; Pincus Green; presidential pardons; Denise Rich; trade restrictions; Marc Rich Investment
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Swiss Miss: When his wife required an emergency transplant, this professor was willing to donate his own kidney -- but CU wasn't willing to pay the price.
Westword recounts the wrangling between the University of Colorado and CU professor Victor Saouma over the cost of an emergency kidney transplant in Switzerland for Saouma's wife, Rhea. The Saoumas were enrolled in CU's employee health plan, which provided health care through the university's Health Sciences Center. The Saoumas had also purchased the Silver Plan, additional coverage that allowed them to get some treatment outside of CU. But with enrollment in this plan dropping and its costs increasing, CU officials dropped the plan altogether. The new plan, called the Gold Plan, did not allow for transplants outside of the Health Sciences Center except in the most urgent of cases. CU tried to avoid paying for the cost of Rhea's kidney transplant while the couple was living in Switzerland for Victor's sabbatical. After being served a lawsuit in the fall of 2000, CU administrators eventually agreed to pay the costs of the surgery, plus interest, legal fees and an additional, undisclosed amount. A 1999 audit of CU's employee health program validated allegations that the plan was mismanaged.
Tags: University of Colorado; organ transplant; health maintenance organization; HMO; university health plan
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Mexicans Launder 'Dirty' Money in Texas
The Wall Street Journal reveals that millions -- possibly billions -- of dollars are laundered in Texas each year. The article describes Texas as "a poor man's Switzerland."
Tags: money laundering; Texas; Mexico; business; crime