The Money Trail
organization
Finance Uncovered, Free Press Unlimited, Journalismfund.eu & Oxfam Novib
description
The Money Trail is a collaborative three-year project to conduct trainings and support stories on illicit and exploitative finance with the aim of fostering journalist collaborations in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as campaign spikes to ensure stories have impact and raise awareness. The goal is to force politicians to act and for revenue authorities and enforcement agencies to recover funds that can be used for the public good. A total of eight trainings are delivered with partners leading on different topics. Of these, six five-day workshops include: 1) a three-day training by Finance Uncovered on how to investigate corporate accounts, offshore activity and corporate and kleptocratic corruption with a focus on open-source information in order to find the “story in the numbers” and tell it with widespread appeal; and 2) a two-day training by Free Press Unlimited on digital security for protecting journalists and researchers. In addition, Oxfam Novib is delivering two workshops on how to use published stories in advocacy work with the aim to make connections with their global campaign on extreme inequality and poverty. Oxfam provides some related support to CSOs. Participants do not have to have prior experience in finance to apply, but strong research or investigative skills are a must. Roughly two-thirds of participants are journalists and one-third are CSOs. Intercontinental collaborations are encouraged amongst the journalists. For the forthcoming workshop in financial investigative journalist and digital security, academics have also been invited to apply. This project is just over mid-way and is funded by the Netherlands Postcode Lottery.
Finance Uncovered is a training and reporting organization that works to improve the quantity and quality of investigative stories about illicit finance or exploitation by training and supporting journalists and activists, particularly in the Global South. Two co-directors oversee the equivalent of 3.5 full time reporters who in turn work with trained participants and the media organizations they work for to help generate stories. The organization offers a range of follow the money editorial services including illicit finance trainings, story-focused workshops, helpdesk support, one-on-one research and editorial support, investigative projects, and mentoring. Finance Uncovered also offers some webinars and bespoke trainings on request. Trainers include staff, as well as experienced accountants, former law enforcement officials and financial journalists. Over 500 people from 90 countries have attended their trainings in locations such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria and the UK, with 70% of participants from the Global South.
impact
Illustration of Impact: A Finance Uncovered article in the Guardian looked at how oil giant ConocoPhillips is suing the Vietnamese government using international arbitration under the UK-Vietnam Bilateral Investment Agreement in order to avoid paying capital gains tax worth $173M on oil fields that it sold in Vietnam in 2012 through one of its UK subsidiaries. Oxfam Vietnam is following up with campaigning, advocacy and additional research. It has now emerged that ConocoPhillips has settled this case and is paying back the tax owed thanks to the possibility of further “negative publicity.”
In another instance, two Finance Uncovered staffers spent a week in the newsroom of the Bangladesh Daily Prothom Alo in Dhaka. They gave accounts training, document sourcing tips and held one-on-one story clinics with individual journalists. One story involved leaks alleging huge bribery at Titas Gas, Bangladesh’s state-owned gas distribution firm. The Prothom journalist had his drafts translated and Finance Uncovered edited them, recommending phrasing to minimise legal risk and graphics to make the story easier to understand. After it was published, officials at Titas Gas were arrested and the journalist won two awards for his story.