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 "offshore companies" ...
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Hidden Wealth of Azerbaijan President
The President of oil-rich Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has been compared to a Mafia crime boss in US diplomatic cables, and man analysts refer to him as a dictator. OCCRP looked deeper than those labels and found that the Aliyev family has systematically grabbed shares of the most profitable businesses in the country. Investigative reports by OCCRP and Radio Free Europe have revealed and more importantly proven for the first time that the ruling family has secret ownership stakes through offshore companies in the country’s largest businesses, including banks, construction companies, gold mines and phone companies. The government Aliyev runs gave these shares. The family also has secretly amassed high-end property in places like the Czech Republic. The Azeri government responded to the revelations first with silence and now claims that OCCRP is an agent of the rival Armenian government. Aliyev’s administration also failed to investigate the harassment and blackmail of OCCRP and RFE journalist Khadija Ismayilova earlier this year. While Azerbaijan has worked at improving its image worldwide, OCCRP’s reporting makes clear that a petty dictatorship remains in control.
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The Offshore Crime
While governments and citizen of Eastern Europe were struggling with the recent financial crisis and trying to borrow money from international institutions, billions of Euros circulated in the rgeion in an illegal, parallel system that enriched organized crime figures and corrupt politicians.
Tags: crime; financial crisis; phantom companies
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Florida's Insurance Nightmare
Six years after eight hurricanes ripped across Florida, state residents still struggle to recover from the storms' legacy - a wrecked property insurance market. Exorbitant premiums, the highest in the world, have soured the state's struggling economy, killed real estate sales and forced families from their homes. Homeowners were told that unless they paid even more, no insurance company would take their hurricane risk. The Herald-Tribune showed that is a lie. Floridians have been lied to about why there is a crisis, where their money is going, and whether they're even protected against storm losses. Public policy has been corrupted by fiction spun by the insurance industry and its supposed regulators. Billions of dollars desperately needed for the next disaster have been siphoned offshore. And millions of homeowners are left to entrust their financial security on a system rigged to extort profit. To expose the hidden truth of Florida's insurance crisis, St. John cultivated key sources deep within every aspect of the insurance industry and sought massive amounts of financial and policy data from multiple state and national entities. When it became obvious Florida's crisis was manipulated from afar, she traveled to Bermuda and Monte Carlo to discover the hidden players truly in charge.
Tags: home insurance; property insurance; Florida; hurricane; real estate; insurance premiums; homeowners; Bermuda; Monte Carlo; state regulators; anti-trust law; State Farm
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Hidden Havens
The reporter investigates how U.S. multinational companies use hidden strategies and offshore havens to avoid paying the full corporate tax rate.
Tags: foreign tax haven; offshore; tax rate; tax avoidance; tax loophole
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Manager with the Vintu Empire-Inmate at the Chisinau Penitentiary
Sorin Ovidiu Vintu is the owner of the “most important and dynamic media empire in Romania.” He owns a number of media outlets and began expanding in neighboring countries. For years, Vintu’s source of income was unknown, until recently the media empire began losing money and the details came pouring out. The article brings to light the unknown details of his media empire, including details associated to his companies.
Tags: Media Empire; Romania; Media; News; Journalism; Offshore companies; Crime; Managers
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The Illegal Cod
"This story uncovered how western companies cooperating with Russian mafia organizations has taken control of the Urssian off-shore fishing fleet and is systematically overfishing the quotas in the Barents Sea, the only place on Earth where there is still a healthy population of cod."
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LNG: County Caught in the Crossfire
In California there are two warring views toward liquid natural gas (LNG. One is that California faces an imminent energy shortage if LNG isn't used. The other is that LNG is a fireball waiting to happen. Neither are completely correct. While domestic supply is lagging, it is a small gap that has led to highly profitable companies who import LNG. However, there are some real concerns about the locations of LNG import facilities.
Tags: natural gas; liquid natural gas; offshore
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"Illegal...And Thriving"
PartyGaming Inc., a British company that operates on-line gambling sites, is at the vanguard of a global goldrush. Even though 90 percent of PartyGaming's revenues come from the U.S., and the Justice Department swears that online gambling is 100 percent illegal, nothing has been done to stop the trend. And with billions of dollars of potential revenues involved, land-based U.S. casinos are eager to get a piece of the on-line action.
Tags: Internet gaming; Internet gambling; IPO's; offshore companies; DOJ
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Global shift: The flight of jobs
This four-day series examines the impact upon Sonoma County from the "offshoring" of thousands of high-tech, high-income jobs over the past four years. Hundreds of interviews and data analysis revealed the impact upon individuals who lost their jobs, the county's falling wage base, the working conditions and wages overseas, and the tax benefits U.S. companies reap from moving operations to other countries.
Tags: jobs; employment; offshoring; industry; Agilent Technologies; high-tech manufacturing; global competition; Malaysia; India; employment; trade
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Dan Gordon, Merrill Lynch and the Missing $43 Million
Dan Gordon, a 24-year-old Merrill Lynch energy trader, embezzled $43 million from the world's largest securities firm, which ignored warnings of criminal conduct by Gordon and which didn't disclose the theft until after it was reporter by Bloomberg News, three years after Gordon's crimes. Four months after the first Bloomberg News story, Gordon pleaded guilty to fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy.
Tags: Williams School; Merrill Lynch & Co.; U.S. Justice Department; Dan Gordon; embezzlement; energy trade; offshore companies; offshore accounts; conspiracy; securities; Yale University; Boston University; money laundering; Ostrich Capital; Kings Holdings LLC; AIG Private Bank; Constellation Energy Group; Newport Pacific Financial Group SA; Allegheny Energy Inc.; Mellon Bank; K2 Energy Corporation; Falcon Energy Holdings; Daticon; fraud