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When the Taliban were first toppled in 2001, there was hope among some Afghans that it could mark the start of a new Afghanistan. President Bush promised the US would help construct a new, functional government – and some diaspora returned, eager to help rebuild the country. Among them was Saad Mohseni. Saad, an Afghan-Australian banker, would go on to start a radio station with his siblings in Kabul. It would soon grow into Afghanistan’s largest media company, spreading out across Asia and the Middle East. This week on Whale Hunting, Saad talks to Bradley about what it was like to witness the rise and fall of the fledgling Afghan state through the lens of the country’s biggest media network. They also discuss the first signs of trouble in Afghanistan’s reconstruction, why Saad continues to operate Moby group under Taliban rule today, and what he sees for the future of the country.
Saad’s book, Radio Free Afghanistan, is available in bookshops from 24 September in the US and 26 September in the UK – or pre-order online.
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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On Monday, Malaysia’s High Court heard how a staggering $2.4 million made its way from the coffers of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, into the bank accounts of Kim Kardashian and Pharell Williams – all via fugitive businessman Jho Low. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley Hope and Tom Wright get together to discuss the latest developments in the ever-evolving 1MDB saga. They explain how celebrities and music stars were pulled into Jho Low’s orbit by big money, and discuss a long-overdue legal breakthrough in Switzerland, where two key players have been sentenced for their roles in the scandal.
Mentioned in this week’s episode:
Billion Dollar Whale, the story of 1MDB by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope: https://amzn.to/44bJf9I
The sentencing of Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahoney, PetroSaudi executives: https://www.ft.com/content/6c70d17b-4546-462d-9d86-99e1c50bf9cd
The Star’s coverage of Kim Kardashian and Pharrell Williams’ connections to 1MDB https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/09/09/1mdb-trial-staggering-usd24mil-went-into-kim-kardashian-and-pharell-williamss-bank-accounts
Check My Steezo - From "22 Jump Street" Soundtrack (the Jho Low verse starts at 1.59 for those interested): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcnMvZC6pb0
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You’ve probably heard of blood diamonds, but what about blood antiquities?
Today, most trappings of wealth – like cash, diamonds or gold – are subject to stringent regulation. But not fine art and antiquities. Somehow, the art market has escaped the toughest rules, becoming a favored global hub for dirty money. This week on Whale Hunting, Tom Wright is joined by Tess Davis, executive director at the Antiquities Coalition, where she leads work to tackle the illicit trafficking of antiquities and ancient art. It’s a trade used to launder money by Russian oligarchs and sanctioned terrorist groups alike. Together, Tom and Tess take a deep dive into the dark side of the art world, discussing the bad actors using art as their playground, the complicity of major institutions, and what can be done to reform the art business.
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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Thanks for listening to season two of Whale Hunting! The podcast will be back very soon with brand new episodes on everything from cultural racketeering to grassroots war reporting, murky offshore jurisdictions, and much more.
In the meantime, we wanted to share an episode from one of our favourite shows. It's called Lever Time and it's the flagship podcast from our friends at The Lever, a reader-supported investigative outlet covering corruption, accountability and power in the U.S. In this episode, The Lever's Arjun Singh is joined by New York Times reporter Peter Goodman and The Groundwork Collaborative's Lindsay Owens, to look at how corporations exploited the pandemic to price gouge everybody else. Enjoy!
For more from The Lever, head to levernews.com or search for Lever Time in your favorite podcast app. And remember, you can subscribe to the Whale Hunting newsletter by visiting whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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A furious letter from a smartly-named law firm is almost par for the course for journalists on the crime and corruption beat. From oligarchs and dictators to badly behaved billionaires, many have enlisted the help of libel lawyers to frighten off reporters and squash unfavorable stories. What’s more rare, however, is for these furious letters to materialize in an actual lawsuit. That was the unfortunate situation faced by Ed Siddons, a reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, after reporting on a multibillion-dollar Kazakh investment vehicle. For two years, Ed and the Bureau were forced to defend a defamation lawsuit launched by the company. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley chats to Ed about why London has become the libel capital of the world, how bad actors are exploiting UK law to suppress public interest journalism, and the ferocious firms that help them pursue these claims.
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com
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In recent years, Philipp Grüll has spent almost all his time reporting on arms deals. He’s considered something of a specialist, so when his colleague Frederik Obermaier approached him with questions about a major global arms dealer, Philipp was surprised to find he’d never heard of him. His name was Li Fangwei, and he was considered so dangerous that the FBI had put a $5m bounty on his head. Intrigued, Philipp and Frederik enlisted the help of two other German journalists – Bastian Obermayer and Christoph Giesen – to unravel the story of Li Fangwei. This week on Whale Hunting, host Tom Wright speaks with Philipp and Christoph about the group’s search for the elusive arms dealer – the topic of their new book, The Chinese Phantom: the hunt for the world’s most dangerous arms dealer. Together, they discuss the knotty web of diplomatic negotiations, state complicity, and murky dual-use technology that their investigation uncovered – as well as the ongoing mystery surrounding Li Fangwei’s whereabouts.
The Chinese Phantom: the hunt for the world’s most dangerous arms dealer is out now in German, and available for pre-order in English at all good online bookshops.
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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In the US, all American citizens have the constitutional right to lobby their representatives in Washington DC. It’s a right that has come in handy over the years as foreign powers, dictators and kleptocrats look for proxies to help them wash their reputations and push their agendas on US soil. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley dives into foreign lobbying with Casey Michel, an investigative journalist and author of the new book, Foreign Agents: how American lobbyists and lawmakers threaten democracy around the world. Together, they discuss the history of this murky practice in the US, how it shapes American politics in hidden ways, and what recent cases like the conviction of Senator Bob Menendez reveal about the industry.
Casey is also the director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program at the Human Rights Foundation. You can read the program’s latest report, Infiltrating America: How the UAE Launched an Unprecedented Political Interference Campaign in the US at hrf.org. Casey’s book, Foreign Agents, is available for pre-order now on Amazon in online bookstores.
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that [...] he is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse." Some fighting talk from Janet Malcolm, back in 1989. But is there truth in her words? This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley talks to Steve Fishman, the legendary journalist who got big names like fraudster Bernie Madoff and killer Son of Sam to open up. Steve's latest podcast My Friend, The Serial Killer reflects on his first big break in journalism, which came about after a close encounter with serial killer Robert Carr. He talks about why the story has continued to trouble him, and what it was like to revisit his early reporting decades later. Bradley and Steve also discuss the intimacy of telling stories in podcasts, how to get sources to talk, and the careful balance between sincerity, compassion and ruthless reporting.
To listen to Steve's podcast, search for Smoke Screen: My Friend, The Serial Killer in your favourite podcast app. There's also the special director's cut of his show Empire on Blood, with three new episodes, coming soon to The Burden feed.
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No nation faced more devastating consequences in the aftermath of 9/11 than Afghanistan. At least, that’s what Sune Rasmussen observed in his six years living and reporting from the country in the midst of its upheaval. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley Hope speaks with Sune about his time in Afghanistan and his new book on the Allied invasion, 20 Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation. Together, they discuss what it was like living in Afghanistan during the war, why the Taliban continues to appeal to some young Afghans, and what Western reporting often gets wrong about Afghanistan, its people, and its plight. Sune’s book, 20 Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation, is available for pre-order online now.For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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It’s a precarious time for the Russian elite. Caught up in the invasion of Ukraine and an immovable dictator, the noblesse russe have to tip-toe through economic and political conflict to survive. In the last two years, however, an increasing number have lost their footing. This week on Whale Hunting, host Bradley Hope welcomes Xenia Rakovshik, a Russian-American journalist who's been digging into so-called Sudden Russian Death Syndrome. Together they discuss the unusual spate of sudden deaths – from heart attacks to murder-suicides and falls from height – and their seemingly outsized occurrence among Russian oligarchs and businessmen of late. Xenia also shares one theory about why this spate of deaths may have begun following Russia's invasion of Ukraine (spoiler: Putin may not be behind all of them) and what life is like for those currently living within Putin's grip, including Russian journalists.
To find out more about Xenia's investigation into mysterious Russian deaths, head to whalehunting.projectbrazen.com for the latest edition of our newsletter. Make sure to sign up to the Whale Hunting newsletter to have stories like this one delivered direct to your inbox!
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In 2013, US-based Smithfield Foods – the world's largest pork producer – was bought by a Chinese firm for nearly $5 billion. But was it just a run-of-the-mill acquisition for a big Chinese company, or was there more to the story? It was a question that would send investigative reporter Nate Halverson down a rabbit hole that exposed a hidden war across the world over two vital resources: food and water. This week on Whale Hunting, Tom Wright welcomes Nate to discuss The Grab, his new documentary delving into global conspiracies to control food and water, spanning everything from China’s acquisition of US pig farms to Saudi investors exploiting Arizona’s aquifers. Nate also shares his discoveries about Blackwater mercenary Erik Prince, what Putin’s invasion of Ukraine means for world wheat supplies, and how food insecurity and climate change will make fresh water the 21st century’s new oil.
The Grab is available to stream now on Apple TV and Amazon Prime in the US, and is coming soon to screens elsewhere in the world. Find out more at www.magpictures.com/thegrab.
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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This week on Whale Hunting, we're bringing you a special episode from Project Brazen's archives that asks: How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive? Whale Hunting host Bradley Hope first met Adrian Hong in 2011. In this audio short, Bradley recounts his first meeting with Adrian, a Yale drop-out who led an underground organization working to undermine Kim Jong-un's regime by helping top North Korean diplomats defect. After a fake kidnapping of a top North Korean diplomat in Madrid went awry, a wanted poster for Adrian was circulated by the U.S. Marshals, sending him into hiding.
Bradley talks with Christopher Ahn, the only person to be arrested after the botched kidnapping. Christopher’s life has been upturned in the aftermath of the Madrid incident, and he is currently fighting extradition to Spain. To learn more about the unbelievable story of Adrian, Christopher and Free Joseon, visit www.rebelandthekingdom.com or find The Rebel and The Kingdom online and in all good bookshops.
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Dr Ruja Ignatova has been on the run since 2017 after orchestrating one of the biggest scams in history. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley chats to Jamie Bartlett, the author and broadcaster who brought Ruja's shocking story into the mainstream with the hit podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen. Her OneCoin scam was somewhere between a crypto rug pull and a multi-level marketing scheme that pulled in ordinary retail investors to the tune of $4 billion. In this episode, Bradley chats to Jamie about his unorthodox journey into podcasting, from tracking fringe movements on Facebook to digging into the dark net, and his theory that radical online groups are often the first to embrace new technology. They also look back at how Jamie initially came across Ruja's scam, and how the story of the missing cryptoqueen continues to evolve five years on from the podcast's launch.
Want more from Whale Hunting? Head to our website at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com to subscribe to our newsletter delving into the murky worlds of money and power.
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Think of your favorite mafia movie or narco show. Then think of its female characters. How many of them fall into the following categories? 1) long suffering wife 2) hot girlfriend 3) victim of crime. Probably a majority, right? But like any other industry, there are women out there running drug operations — even building empires — and journalist Deborah Bonello has been following their stories in Latin America for some time. In fact, she’s even written a book about them. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley talks to Deborah about the women that prompted her to write the book, from ruthless Valle cartel leader Doña Digna to El Chapo’s right-hand woman Guadalupe Fernandez Valencia. They also discuss how Deborah came to report on the narcotics business, what it’s like to piss off a cartel boss with your work — and why we can’t help but root for female Narca bosses.
Deborah’s book, Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America's Cartels, is available now online and in all good bookshops.
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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Gangsters of the past may have headed to their nearest payphone to make risky calls, but modern day criminals have a much more convenient option: encrypted cellphones. The question is, who makes these phones and secure apps? In 2018, one phone app came along that was specifically marketed to criminal clientele. It was called Anom, and its mass adoption by organized crime groups around the world would eventually lead to the biggest sting in history. This week on Whale Hunting, investigative reporter Joseph Cox unravels the full story, explaining what criminals loved about Anom, the questionable decision to allow serious crimes to continue as evidence was collected, and even gangsters' favorite emojis.
Anom is the topic of Joseph's new book, Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever, which is out now online and in all good bookshops.
Want more from Whale Hunting? Head to our website at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com to subscribe to our newsletter delving into the murky worlds of money and power.
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Like night needs day, criminals have always needed money launderers. But how is the digital revolution changing the laundering business? This week on Whale Hunting, host Bradley Hope speaks to Geoff White, author of the new book Rinsed, about the increasingly sophisticated digital skills used by money launderers around the world. Together, they discuss how the industry has embraced new technology, from online brokers to methods like layering and using crypto mixers — as well as jumping into some of the most intriguing cases from Rinsed, including a Manchester drug trafficking group and a group of ingenious North Korean hackers.
Geoff's book, Rinsed, is out online and in all good bookshops from 13 June.
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Many journalists have that one story they just can't let drop. For Nicky Woolf, it was this one. In December 2014, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, horror unfolded at the final night of Midwest Furfest, the world’s largest convention for Furries. There's an attack. Poisonous levels of chlorine gas sweep through the hotel corridors, nineteen people are hospitalized and hundreds are evacuated. Hazmat teams trace the gas to a stairwell, where they find the remains of a chemical bomb. But almost a decade later, the identity of the perpetrator remains a mystery. This week, on Whale Hunting, host Bradley Hope interviews Nicky Woolf about his determination to unravel this unsolved case, leading to the creation of his new podcast, Fur & Loathing. Together, they discuss building trust with the Furry community, pursuing suspects, and understanding what sidelined subcultures can teach us about societies darkest elements.
To listen to Nicky's new podcast, search for Fur & Loathing in your favourite podcast app, visit the Brazen channel in Apple Podcasts, or go to brazen.fm/fur-and-loathing.
For more from Whale Hunting, follow the podcast wherever you listen – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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Once upon a time, in a land far away, corporate interests didn't rule the political roost. It's hard to imagine today, when Big Oil, Big Tech and Big Finance (among other 'bigs') all muscle in on US democracy, grappling for the attention and affections of elected representatives. Indeed, a whole industry has sprung up to mediate this muscling, and you can find it on K Street. Home to Washington DC's lobbyists, K Street is also the topic of Brody Mullins' new book, The Wolves of K Street. This week on Whale Hunting, host Bradley Hope chats to Brody about the book, which he co-authored with his brother, Luke Mullins, and what they uncovered on their deep dive into the world of American corporate lobbying. Together, they discuss why lobbying came about in the first place and how powerful forces have changed over time, from the influential civil rights and environmental groups of the 1970s to today's big players on K Street. From mysterious deaths to dirty tactics and signs of change on Capitol Hill, Brody unravels this filthy rich industry, its biggest personalities, and its most questionable practices.
Brody and Luke Mullins' book, The Wolves of K Street, is out now. You can find it online and in all good bookshops.
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We’re back and we’re kicking off season two with a bang! This week on Whale Hunting, host Tom Wright is joined by Jane Perlez, long-time Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, and now host of the new podcast FACE OFF: The US vs China. The show dives into the defining issues of the US-China rivalry, from espionage to technology, nuclear arms and cultural exchange – because there's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition, right? Chatting with Tom, Jane shares details of her years reporting on the ground in Beijing, the threats of military escalation in today's geopolitical climate, and President Xi's vision for China. Together, they consider whether China and US were always going to end up as foes, and what the future could hold for this rocky relationship.
Face Off: The US vs China is out now, available wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, if you’re enjoying Whale Hunting, make sure to visit our website at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com, where you can also subscribe to our newsletter.
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Thanks for listening to season one of Whale Hunting! The podcast will be back very soon with brand new episodes on everything from President Xi of China to corporate lobbying in Washington, Furry subculture, female Narco bosses, and much more.
In the meantime, we wanted to share an episode from one of our favourite shows: the 404 Media podcast. The team at 404 Media report from the frontier of tech, covering everything from hacking to AI, surveillance and cybercrime – and their weekly podcast is a great way to catch up on their new stories. In this episode, 404 journalist Joseph Cox shares his latest investigation into the Com, the nebulous online entity and culture that is linked to some of the most high profile and brazen data breaches in recent history. Joseph sat in their chatrooms while rival hackers and criminals doxed and physically robbed one another. You’ll also hear from 404’s Jason Koebler as he breaks down why some researchers are calling out Google on some of its AI science research. Enjoy!
For more on 404 media, head to 404media.co. And remember, you can subscribe to the Whale Hunting newsletter as well as the podcast by visiting whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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