When Al Jazeera Makes a Difference
When Al Jazeera Makes a Difference Phil Rees | Director of Investigative Journalism, AJMN Sarah Yeo | Senior Producer, Investigative Journalism, AJMN
The Cyprus Mail wrote, “Our political system was shaken to its core by the release of the Al Jazeera video and it now appears to be falling apart.” In investigative journalism, there is no better feeling than when our work makes a difference. And if success is measured by impact, The Cyprus Papers Undercover is hard to beat. The investigation created a political tsunami on the Mediterranean island and sent shockwaves through the European Union. Within a week of its release, everything changed. It is often the case that we never know exactly how an investigation will end. Rather like drilling for oil and gas, we search for clues just as geologists look for signs that are important in the recovery of hydrocarbons. Sometimes we discover the equivalent of a massive field. At other times, despite months of hard work, we end up empty handed. Being some distance from Cyprus, the Investigative Unit (I-Unit) received a lead that English football clubs could be purchased by criminals and used to launder dirty money from abroad. Aston Villa, a Premier League club based in Birmingham, had been bought by a mysterious Chinese owner who
is now in jail in his home country. The plight of Aston Villa raised a question: Could a person with criminal convictions and whose source of funds is not established buy a football club in Britain, despite the strict regulations in place? The I-Unit had suspicions of wrongdoing involving two men in London who are in the business of finding football clubs for wealthy foreign investors. They are enablers who get the superrich what they want, for a significant finder’s fee. To arrange a meeting, the I-Unit created legends for two undercover reporters, who we named Billy and Angie. They posed as representatives of an ultra- high net worth investor from China. The fictitious ‘investor’ had fled a seven-year jail sentence for bribery and corruption and had laundered his money through casinos in Macao. And now he wanted to buy an English football team. The first football club we were offered was Derby County, for an all-in package of over $100m. But how could our wealthy, criminal investor conceal his conviction and source of funds from the football authorities?
The enablers had an idea - provide our fictional criminal with a Cypriot passport, which would allow him to both change his name and live and work in the European Union. The enablers said they had the connections in Cyprus that would allow a convicted criminal to obtain a passport under the island’s citizenship- by-investment scheme known as the Cyprus Investment Programme (CIP).
90
91
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter