International Consortium of Investigative Journalists stories from The Center for Public Integrity

Real estate mogul built offshore maze as creditors, Swedish government pursued him

2013-04-26T10:55:00-04:00

STOCKHOLM — Bankrupt Swedish real estate tycoon Hans Thulin had as much as $17 million sheltered offshore at a time when the Swedish government was pursuing him in court for millions of dollars in unpaid debts, according to secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and reviewed by Fokus, Sweden’s leading newsmagazine.

Details of Thulin’s offshore holdings are big news in Sweden because he has been one of the Swedish state’s largest debtors — and because he’s well-remembered in his native country as a lavish collector of art and luxury cars and a symbol of the high-flying, easy-credit ’80s. It was the fall of his commercial property empire that helped signal the beginning of Sweden’s 1990 real estate meltdown.

A government-owned company that had taken over bad debts owed by Thulin sued him in 2007, seeking to force him to repay business loans he’d defaulted on. A trial court imposed a judgment of 150 million Swedish crowns against him in 2009.

By early 2013, the total debt and interest Thulin owed the government had grown to 179 million crowns ($28 million).

Continue reading at ICIJ.

'Crocodile Dundee' actor Paul Hogan chases his missing offshore millions

2013-04-15T12:20:17-04:00

"Crocodile Dundee" star Paul Hogan may have settled his tax case with Australian authorities but he is accusing his once-trusted tax adviser of absconding with $34 million he helped Hogan hide in offshore tax havens.

There is already an international warrant out for Philip Egglishaw, the man known as the ''bowler hat Englishman'', who is the alleged mastermind behind Australia's biggest tax evasion scheme.

But now the international fugitive has the Australian actor on his tail, with Hogan's advisers taking legal action in the US alleging Egglishaw, who set up elaborate corporate structures in tax havens to help his clients evade tax, has stolen the entertainer's money.

Continue reading at ICIJ.org.

Top Malaysian politicians use offshore secrecy

2013-04-09T13:26:59-04:00

Key members of the Malaysian government, their families, and well-heeled associates are among those owning secretive offshore companies in Singapore and the British Virgin Islands, according to a cache of leaked documents.

They include former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad's son Mirzan, Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin and Michael Chia, the alleged ‘bagman' for Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.

The files, which were obtained by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and examined by Malaysiakini, show more than 1,500 Malaysians owning offshore companies in Singapore – dubbed as the new Switzerland – as well as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), an international tax haven.

The ICIJ list comprises a curious mix of Forbes-listed tycoons, parliamentarians, retired politicians, civil servants and their spouses, members of royal families, famous and infamous businesspeople, underworld kingpins and even former beauty queens.

Click through to ICIJ.org to continue reading.

SLIDESHOW: The illicit trade in coltan

2013-01-23T13:01:05-05:00

Coltan's picturesque beginnings

Five things you need to know about coltan:

2012-03-15T18:38:00-04:00

It's used by almost everybody — in mobile phones, electric cars and a wide array of consumer electronic devices; it is in optical and medical equipment. As new technologies emerge and produce new devices, demand will grow. There is no ready substitute.
Coltan’s ability to hold and move electrical signals, and its conductive ability in extreme temperatures, makes it ideal for smart bomb guidance controls. Security analysts say it is a strategic mineral.
War-torn Central Africa supplies about a fourth of the world market as production declines in Australia, the previous world leader. Most Central African coltan is considered conflict mineral because mining areas are controlled by armed factions and organized crime. It’s the same in the South American jungles where Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil meet and where officials say they’ve found vast coltan reserves.
There is no simple way to keep conflict coltan out of the stream of legitimate minerals used by manufacturers. It doesn’t have “geo-fingerprints” like conflict diamonds.
Controlling the flow of conflict coltan involves comprehensive action by governments, industry and activists. But that’s difficult: U.S. and European firms are looking at certification of coltan, but since manufacturers in China and India use the bulk of the world’s supply, certification efforts will fail if those countries do not participate.

About this story

Venezuela — 2012-03-04T02:00:01-05:00

That smart phone in your pocket contains a bit of coltan — a prized mineral that helps move electronic signals across ubiquitous microchips and controllers and allows devices to work well in extreme temperatures. And coltan is a strategic mineral because it's important for controls on smart bombs, for example.

But coltan is also a conflict mineral, with large supplies coming from parts of Central Africa controlled by warring factions and criminal organizations that employ small-scale miners in terrible conditions, or charge them taxes to operate their claims.

For several months, ICIJ reporters in six countries combed government and court records and interviewed mining experts and brokers. The reporters also followed miners as they prospected for coltan in South America’s Amazon, in the border between Venezuela and Colombia, where they face cross-border smugglers and must deal with violent drug traffickers and paramilitaries — conditions similar to those in Central Africa.

Lack of regulation, transparency and security make this area a new source of conflict minerals, experts say, and one in which an array of human rights abuses is already taking place.

The Team:

Reporters: Emilia Diaz-Struck and Joseph Polizsuk (Venezuela); Ignacio Gómez (Colombia); Marcelo Soares (Brazil); Nari Kim (South Korea)

Project manager: Ricardo Sandoval

Editors: Ricardo Sandoval and Gerard Ryle

Media Partners: El Universal (Venezuela), Arman-do.info (Venezuela), Noticias Uno (Colombia), El Espectador (Colombia)

Video: El último pez [Spanish only]

2012-01-26T13:53:11-05:00

Reporter Mar Cabra discusses the 'Looting the Seas III' investigation in this video produced by El Mundo.

About this project

Salvador,Bahia,Brazil — 2012-01-06T14:12:50-05:00

Thousands of men working in the Pacific Coast sugarcane fields of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and neighboring countries have been dying of chronic kidney disease, an ailment that in most parts of the developed world is a manageable condition. The condition has been exacerbated by difficult working conditions and poor access to timely health care, while Central American governments and the sugar industry have done little in response.

Over the years the number of cases of CKD has grown — so much that one community near sugarcane fields in Nicaragua, called La Isla, or The Island, is now known locally as the Island of the Widows. From 2005 to 2009, CKD claimed more than 2,800 men each year in the region; in El Salvador it is now the second-leading cause of death among adult men.

This was the phenomenon — widespread illness and death among a specific group of mostly men — that journalist Sasha Chavkin saw on a number of trips to the region over the past two years. Chavkin returned to the region on behalf of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, to interview dozens of current and former sugarcane field workers and their families and physicians, as well as researchers in the region. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Ronnie Greene, a senior reporter at the Center, joined Chavkin in pursuing answers and data from government health officials in a position to push for more action on CKD, global health officials and sugar industry representatives.

The reporters wanted to know: Why does it strike mostly men who mostly work in sugarcane fields? What triggers it? Why are so many people dying? What have wealthier nations and NGOs done to help?

After five months of reporting, Chavkin and Greene wrote this account about the victims, the inaction among those who should act, and of the lingering mysteries around why CKD is so lethal among certain sugarcane workers in Central America.

More victims and government officials were interviewed by Journalist Kate Sheehy for Public Radio International’s The World. Sheehy is based in the El Salvador offices of El Faro, an investigative website edited by Carlos Dada, a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a network of 115 journalists in 51 nations. ICIJ members Carlos Fernando Chamorro in Nicaragua and Giannia Segnini in Costa Rica also contributed reporting to this project.

Questions? Comments? Let us know.

The Team:

Lead reporters: Sasha Chavkin and Ronnie Greene

Sasha Chavkin is a reporter at The New York World, an online publication that conducts investigative reporting on New York City government. He previously wrote for ProPublica, where his reporting on disabled borrowers with student loans, BP oil spill damage claims and BP cleanup workers helped prompt changes in federal and private programs. He has also reported abroad from Nigeria, Bolivia and Peru.

Ronnie Greene joined the Center after serving as investigations and government editor for The Miami Herald. He also spent nine years at the paper exposing slave-like conditions in Florida’s farm fields, investigating deadly air cargo plane crashes and uncovering corruption at Miami’s airport. Greene is author of Night Fire: Big Oil, Poison Air, And Margie Richard’s Fight To Save Her Town, and his work has been honored by the Gerald Loeb Awards, National Press Club, Investigative Reporters and Editors and National Headliner Awards.

Radio reporter: Kate Sheehy (Public Radio International’s The World)

Web team: Ajani Winston, Sarah Whitmire

CPI Web editor: Christine Montgomery

CPI data editor: David Donald

The World editor: David Baron

Translator: Matías Godoy

Publishing partners:

PRI’s The World (radio)

BBC World Service (radio)

Univision (television)

El Nuevo Herald, Miami

La Nacion, Costa Rica

El Faro, El Salvador

Semana, Nicaragua

Hoy, Chicago

Al Dia, Dallas

La Opinion, Los Angeles

Project editors: Ricardo Sandoval Palos (ICIJ) and Keith Epstein (CPI)

Methodology

Salvador,Bahia,Brazil — 2011-12-12T11:09:25-05:00

Our analysis of the toll from chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Central America is based on mortality data from the World Health Organization. Our goal was to obtain to a conservative estimate of the epidemic’s impact in the region, despite the lack of formal recognition or classification for the new strain of the disease.

We used data for each of the countries where scientific studies and our interviews and observations indicated the ailment was present: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Studies have indicated the disease is spreading in Honduras and Mexico as well. No data were available for Honduras, and while one study has shown CKD to be present in two communities in southern Mexico, there was no way of isolating the relatively small region that is affected.

Our statistics are drawn from several diagnostic categories from the International Classifications of Disease (ICD-10) that indicate kidney failure. This is partly because the lack of a distinct category for the epidemic resulted in kidney disease deaths being classified in different ways. It is also because prior to 2000, the World Health Organization presented data in only a single category that indicated overall deaths caused by kidney failure. To track changes over time and maintain a consistent approach, we applied the same formula to the newer data.

Two WHO doctors, Dr. Enrique Perez-Flores and Dr. Mario Melendez Montano, helped shape our analysis of these data. Both emphasized the degree to which it was likely to undercount the data due to poor recordkeeping and lack of recognition of CKD in the region. Perez-Flores agreed that changes in male deaths from kidney failure over time were a reasonable method for tracking the epidemic’s course in the absence of official recognition for it.

The data show that this formula clearly reflects the CKD epidemic. Across Central America in 2009, the most recent year available, 87 percent of male deaths from kidney failure fell within the signature diagnoses of the epidemic, “Chronic Kidney Disease” and “Unspecified Kidney Failure.” Moreover, the recent increase in CKD is reflected entirely within these categories. Across the region in 2000 (excluding Guatemala, where data was not yet available), there were 157 deaths caused by kidney failure that did not fall within the signature CKD categories. In 2009, there were 161 such deaths.

In other words, kidney failure deaths not caused by CKD appear flat in the last decade, while those caused by CKD skyrocketed.

Also, WHO data show that while kidney disease grew among women in the four Central American countries used for analysis, the rate of growth was smaller among women than men. CKD affects mostly men.

We also considered the possibility that the growing numbers of CKD deaths reflected a secular rise in the disease not connected to the epidemic. CKD is a growing public health threat worldwide, and an increase in traditional forms of CKD likely accounts for some of the increased mortality. In the United States, overall deaths of dialysis patients increased 175% from 1990 to 2009, according to statistics from the U.S. Renal Data System. But even this increase pales compared to men in Central America. In El Salvador and Nicaragua, the countries where data is complete from 1990 to 2009, male death rates from kidney failure increased 458% over the same period.

Finally, it is important to consider the circumstances that these records reflect. Victims of the epidemic are impoverished sugarcane workers and manual laborers in rural areas of Central America. Recordkeeping in these regions is poor, and many die without a death certificate being filed or a cause of death being recorded. Dr. Mario Melendez Montano, who works in El Salvador, said that a significant proportion of CKD deaths are never recorded at all. For this reason, we believe that our findings likely represent a significant undercount of the epidemic’s death toll in the region.

Hake DNA testing: How we did it

2011-10-06T00:03:01-04:00

The most commonly consumed fish in Spain is hake. Based on allegations of fraud in the hake market, ICIJ carried out a DNA study on hake in the Spanish market.

Last year a team of Spanish and Greek researchers at the University of Oviedo and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki published a study on high levels of apparently intentional mislabeling of hake imports in their respective countries.

Southern African hake species were mainly being marketed as European or South American Hake. European and South American hakes are worth double the amount of southern African hakes, researchers noted. Following publication, the Spanish government requested a copy of the study, but the official report did not include company names. The lead researcher Eva García Vázquez told ICIJ she would have provided the names associated with the mislabeled samples had officials asked.

The researchers also experienced complaints from industry. So when ICIJ requested the company identities, García declined to share that information. ICIJ decided to undertake its own snapshot study in Madrid –Spain’s capital– to determine if mislabeling was still occurring. ICIJ commissioned García Vázquez and her team at the University of Oviedo to conduct a second study to determine the extent of mislabeling in the fresh and frozen hake markets.

DNA experts told ICIJ our methodology was sound and simple. Geneticist Einar Neisen from the National Institute of Aquatic Resources at the Technical University of Denmark called the work “a walk in the park” as it was easy to identify the different species. The case might have been different if ICIJ were trying to determine the geographical locations among samples of the same species.

Between June 9 and 14, ICIJ reporters Marcos García Rey and Mar Cabra purchased 100 frozen samples and 50 fresh samples in the Madrid region of products labeled as: Merluccius capensis (Shallow water cape hake), M. paradoxus (Deep-water Cape Hake), Merluccius polli (Benguela Hake), Merluccius senegalensis (Senegalese Hake), M. merluccius (European Hake), M. australis (Southern Hake), or M. hubbsi (Argentine Hake). Because of time and logistical constraints, ICIJ reporters were unable to sample over an extended time period or outside the Madrid region.

Reporters purchased the frozen samples at the top supermarkets in terms of sales. These are also the markets that carry brands from some of the country’s largest importers of frozen seafood. ICIJ also selected samples from companies that sell bulk fish. According to a study by the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries on European hake, Spaniards buy half of their fresh hake in supermarkets and half in traditional fish markets. Fresh samples were purchased from top chain stores as well as local fishmongers selected randomly within the city of Madrid.

The shopping process was documented in spreadsheets, which contained the following information: sample number, date of buy, name of the shop, address, scientific name indicated, reported origin, frozen/fresh, presentation (whole piece, slice, filet, tail), commercial brand, distributor, ship owner, price per kilo and a field for other notes. This information was later typed into Excel.

The purchase and sampling process was captured on video. Each sample was placed in a sterilized plastic cup filled with 100 ml of ethanol for delivery to Oviedo. Following the recommendations of the researches, the cups had inside a penciled piece of paper with the sample number, which was also indicated with a sticker outside. This way, scientists could do a blind analysis of the fish.

ICIJ paid the University of Oviedo, Department of Biology of Organisms and Systems €1,500 to test the samples and provide a written analysis.

For reference, six hake samples of known origin and species were placed as positive controls in each reaction, as well as a negative control containing only water and PCR reaction mixtures, to exclude any possible contamination of vials and materials.

The extraction of DNA was performed employing a protocol based on resin Chelex. A fragment of each sample was introduced into an Eppendorf tube containing a solution of Chelex100 with proteinase K. The tubes were incubated at 55ºC for 1.5 hours. Finally, the samples were kept at 100ºC for 20 minutes for deactivating the proteinase K. The DNA remains diluted in the supernatant, which is employed for further reactions.

The species-specific DNA marker employed was the cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene.

Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) for amplifying the marker from DNA samples were performed in a total volume of 40 μl, employing the Barcode fish primers described by Ward et al. (2005). The PCR program was: initial DNA denaturing at 95 ºC for 5 minutes; 35 cycles of: denaturing at 95 ºC for 20 seconds, annealing at 57 ºC for 20 seconds, extension at 72 ºC for 30 seconds; final extension at 72 ºC for 10 minutes. The four products obtained after the PCR, which are many copies of the DNA marker, were purified and sequenced by Macrogen Holland using an Automatic sequencer 3730XL under BigDye Terminator cycling conditions. All the laboratory process was repeated employing a new bit of tissue taken from each sample. The results were identical for the two aliquots of each sample and ensure repeatability of the analysis.

To determine the species of a sample, the sequence obtained from the sample was compared with those contained in international databases, including the laboratory’s reference sequences for all Merluccius species in the GenBank, employing the program BLAST within NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). Species assignation was made based on > 99% sequence similarity with GenBank voucher specimens Sequence comparison was made independently by two different researchers to ensure reliability of the species determination.

The genetic results were recorded, containing the number of each sample and the corresponding species as authenticated from DNA. Up to then, the researchers had not received any information on the brands or species identified when the fish were purchased. This data was exchanged by email on June 28 at 5 pm. With the complete results, the University of Oviedo Researchers wrote a report analyzing the findings from a scientific perspective.

The mislabeled samples were double checked in a five-step process comparing notes, videos and receipts of the sales.

Subsidy methodology

Spain — 2011-10-12T17:43:57-04:00

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists acquired data on public aid benefiting the Spanish fishing industry between the years 2000-2010. As the European Union’s most powerful fishing nation, Spain is its largest recipient of fishing subsidies.

The World Trade Organization defines fisheries subsidies as “a financial contribution by the public sector that provides private benefits to the fisheries sector.” The contribution can be direct or indirect (such as tax breaks). Worldwide estimations on fisheries subsidies exist, but no detailed analysis of real spending has been conducted of the Spanish fishing industry, which is the largest recipient of fishing aid in the European Union – the world’s third largest fishing “nation.”

To obtain the amounts related to direct government payments to the industry, ICIJ analyzed datasets from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Spain’s central government, and autonomous communities (regions) within Spain to account for public aid flowing to the industry between 2000-2010.

To help in the analysis, ICIJ hired software developer David Cabo, vice-president of Pro Bono Publico, a non-profit organization based in Spain devoted to transparency and open records issues.

For EU funding under the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) for 2000-2006, ICIJ relied on raw data provided by the Directorate General to the non-profit transparency advocacy group Fishsubidy.org in December 2008. ICIJ requested the data directly from the Directorate General, the body in charge of publishing data from 2000-2006. Although it once provided the data to Fishsubsidy.org, the Directorate General said it would not release any more data until the operational programs were completed, which may take years.

Because of the Commission’s interpretation of “confidentiality,” the data provided to Fishsubsidy.org was stripped of any beneficiary information. The data included the breakdown between the EU funding and co-financing by Spain, but the amounts were only for money allocated, not paid. In years prior to the introduction of the euro in 2002, the Directorate General already had calculated the exchange rates for pesetas to euros.

From 2007, the responsibility of publishing the subsidy data shifted to the EU member states. For the remaining EU funding under FIFG and the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) for the years 2007-2010, ICIJ relied on data provided by the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries.

To uncover additional subsidies provided to companies by regional governments and complete the Fishsubsidy.org data with beneficiary information, ICIJ requested data from the five regional governments that received most EU fishing aid: Galicia, Andalucía, Basque Country, Cataluña and the Canary Islands.

ICIJ interviewed Ignacio Gandarias, the director general who oversees subsidy expenditure in Spain, to understand the funding processes and available data. Gandarias said the amounts published by his office regarding EU subsidies in 2007-2010 only included EU money – not the co-financing by the state or the regions. However, when ICIJ crosschecked the data with more detailed information provided by the Basque Country region, ICIJ found that it did appear include state and regional money.

To avoid duplication ICIJ only used the regional data where lines of subsidies matched on the file number. This was the case of the Basque Country and Andalucía, although in the latter only FIFG money could be used, as many file numbers did not match. When possible, ICIJ based its calculations from Brussels and Madrid on amount “paid” rather than amount “allocated.”

Despite the majority of fishing funds coming from direct subsidies from the EU, countries are allowed to provide additional funding directly from their budget. This is called “state aid” and includes money for industry groups, private security, help to pay for fuel during economic crisis, and low-interest loans. To obtain this data, ICIJ analyzed records published in Spain’s official bulletin (BOE). ICIJ disregarded the information also published in these documents related to EU funding because it was impossible to verify potential overlap with the other acquired data, as the subsidies don’t include file numbers. When in doubt, ICIJ erred on the conservative side, so that the amounts accounted for state aid could be considerably higher. For example, Spain was allowed by the EU to give up to €127.8 million for help to the fleet paying for fuel in the period 2007-2010, but in the published subsidies only €10 million were published as specific to that line of aid.

ICIJ also accounted for the subsidies provided by the Infrastructure Ministry for security for the national fishing fleet for items including lifejackets and radio navigation beacons.

Fishing Partnership Agreements are a distinct pocket of aid also funded through the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in Brussels. For the year 2000, ICIJ used the figure calculated by the Institute for European Environmental Policy upon commission by WWF. ICIJ omitted the information for 2001-2003, as the Directorate General could not provide the data by publication deadline. For the period from 2004-2008, ICIJ based its calculations on the 2009 Directorate General working paper “A Diagnosis of the EU Fisheries Sector.” For years 2009-2010, ICIJ analyzed detailed data provided by the Directorate General. The file contained a breakdown by year and by vessel of all active agreements. Those agreements span the period of 2005-2012. ICIJ calculated the per-vessel subsidy value based on overall partnership figures available on the Directorate General’s Website.

Fuel tax breaks benefit the agriculture, aviation, transport, forestry and fisheries sectors, among others, although vessels are among the few vehicles to get completely tax-exempt fuel. Spain’s tax agency (Agencia Tributaria) publishes annually a report on special taxes such as the fuel tax. The 2008 report – the latest available – shows the amount of fuel consumed by the fishing sector for 2000-2008. Following the advice by its author, Antonio Juárez, ICIJ multiplied that figure by the various taxes that would be paid if a ship owner were to fill a Honda (“gasóleo uso general”) instead of a trawler (“gasóleo bonificado”). For the years 2009 and 2010, Juárez provided the figures he says are to be published in coming months.

In previous years, if vessels did not get their fuel from tax-exempt stations, the fishing industry could get a rebate for the tax. However, this method has been in decline since 1996, and Juárez recommended disregarding the figure. In 2008, for example, rebates amounted around €1 million.

One-in-Three Fish

ICIJ wanted to find out how the value of Spain’s industry compared to the subsidies it receives. Economists recommended different methodologies for our analysis.

Rashid Sumaila from the University of British Columbia conduced a global analysis of subsidies versus value published last year. He estimated the value of subsidies – both direct (i.e. building vessels) and indirect (i.e. gas tax savings) – to the industry, and compared that to the value of the landed fish. In his estimation, he included subsidies to the whole industry, which includes the processing sector as well as catching or aquaculture.

Andrew Dyck, a fisheries economist from the University of British Columbia who worked with Sumaila said, “We do include many of the processing subsides in our analysis because we define a subsidy as a payment from government that adds value to fishers. So a processing subsidy, although it goes to a cannery or marketing program, increase demand and add value for fishermen.”

Fernando González Laxe, a fishery economist at the University of La Coruña, said that the FAO and famous fisheries economists such as Milazzo and Sumaila compare total subsides to value of landed catch. He said it becomes too complicated to try to parse out subsidies to the processing sector and recommended using the same methodology as the world’s foremost experts.

Sebastián Villasante, fishery economist from the University of Santiago de Compostela, said no one has undertaken a thorough and accurate accounting of the value of Spain’s fishing industry compared to the subsidies it receives. He felt that any analysis should account for the value of the processing sector, although he said there is no accurate figure for the value of that sector.

Manuel Varela, a fisheries economist at the University of Vigo suggested that ICIJ subtract from our subsidy data any direct aid to the processing sector. He suggested using the Gross Value Added of the fishing and aquaculture sectors to the Spanish economy (GDP) instead of the value of landings.

ICIJ chose to follow Manuel Varela’s suggestion, using the Gross Value Added (valor añadido bruto) for the fishing and aquaculture sectors. As the Gross Value Added is not available for the processing sector, it seemed fairer to take these subsidies out of the calculation. ICIJ extracted from the subsidy analysis all direct aid to the processing sector based on subsidy area coding detailed in EU legislation. ICIJ analyzed a five-year period, 2005 to 2009.

About Looting the Seas

2011-10-27T14:04:21-04:00

Looting the Seas is a two-year project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists looking at the forces that are rapidly depleting the oceans of fish. This new installment in the series focuses on Spain, the most powerful fishing nation in a region where economies and fish stocks are in shambles.

An ICIJ team set out to investigate how Spain’s fishing industry wielded that power at home, in Brussels and overseas.

Reporters from Spain, Uruguay, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Namibia and the United States dug through thousands of pages of scientific reports, court files, investigation reports and official correspondence. The team analyzed reams of subsidy data, employed DNA testing and conducted more than 200 interviews with politicians, fishermen, lobbyists, inspectors, prosecutors, economists and scientists.

A detailed methodology is included here.

Our media partners are The Sunday Times (UK), El País (Spain), EU Observer (Brussels), Huffington Post (US) and Trouw (The Netherlands)

The team:

Project Manager: Kate Willson

Editors: Marina Walker Guevara and Fredrik Laurin

Reporters: Mar Cabra, Marcos García Rey, John Grobler, Nicky Hager and Brigitte Alfter

Data Editor: David Donald

Data Analysis: David Cabo and Mar Cabra

Web: Sarah Whitmire

Video: Emma Schwartz

Graphics: Ajani Winston

To see a comprehensive list of foundations that support ICIJ, click here.

About this project

2011-12-13T16:56:37-05:00

In the fall of 2009, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists began looking into the global trade in asbestos, a cancer-causing fiber banned or restricted in much of the industrialized world but aggressively marketed in developing countries. What evolved was a nine-month investigation of an international lobby, much of it coordinated from Canada, which promotes the use of asbestos in construction materials and other products.

ICIJ joined with reporters and producers with the BBC's International News Services to document the asbestos industry’s activities in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Russia, and the United States. Our investigation concluded that the industry has spent nearly $100 million since the mid-1980s to keep asbestos in commerce. The team’s reporting reveals close relationships among the industry, governments and scientists, and cites predictions from health experts that new epidemics of asbestos-related disease will emerge in the coming decades. Some experts believe that by 2030, asbestos will have taken as many as 10 million lives around the world.

"Dangers in the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade" is based on extensive research in eight countries. The team relied on thousands of pages of documents, including court filings, scientific studies, and financial records, as well as on interviews with health officials, industry representatives, scientists, victims, lawyers, and activists.

Project Staff

Editorial Director: David E. Kaplan

Deputy Director: Marina Walker Guevara

Additional Editing: Julie Vorman, Gordon Witkin

Web Editor: Andrew Green

Deputy Web Editor/Social Media: Cole Goins

Deputy Web Editor/Multimedia: Erik Lincoln

Fact-Checking: Peter Newbatt Smith

Communications: Randy Barrett, Steve Carpinelli

Reporting Team

Project Director: Jim Morris

Reporting Team: Ana Avila (Mexico), Steve Bradshaw (United Kingdom), Te-Ping Chen (China), Dan Ettinger (U.S.), Carlos Eduardo Huertas (Colombia), Murali Krishnan (India), Shantanu Guha Ray (India), Roman Shleynov (Russia), Marcelo Soares (Brazil), Abhishek Upadhyay (India)

Design/Multimedia

Web Site Design: Top Dead Center Design

Interactive Maps and Graphics: Stephen Rountree

Photos: Traver Riggins

Video: Sarah Whitmire

Partners

BBC (with special thanks to Anne Koch, Jon Cronin, Steven Duke, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Stephen Mulvey)

Folha de Sao Paulo (Brazil)

McClatchy Newspapers (United States)

Novaya Gazeta (Russia)

Proceso (Mexico)

South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

Tehelka (India)

Additional Thanks

Bill Buzenberg

Francesca Craig

Robin Heller

Anne Koch

Tuan Le

Ellen McPeake

Nadi Penjarla

Simona Raetz

Jenny Richards

Fernando Rodrigues

Regina Russell

Ricardo Sandoval

Gordon Witkin

Funding

Dangers in the Dust is generously supported by a grant from the Adessium Foundation. Support for this and other Center for Public Integrity projects is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, Greenlight Capital LLC Employees, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Park Foundation, the Popplestone Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

About ICIJ

ICIJ was founded in 1997 as a project of the Center for Public Integrity to marshal the talents of some of the world’s leading investigative reporters in pursuit of vital stories that do not stop at the water’s edge. A unique collaboration of more than 100 investigative reporters in 50 different countries, ICIJ works on in-depth projects on difficult-to-tackle subjects in the public interest, from the arms trade to water privatization to climate change. For more on ICIJ, visit our website.

Glossary of terms

2012-02-27T13:00:08-05:00

ABC: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and correct and consistent use of Condoms. ABC is part of PEPFAR's prevention program that emphasizes abstinence for youth and unmarried persons, which includes delay of sexual initiation; mutual faithfulness in a sexual relationship and reducing the number of partners for sexually active adults; and correct and consistent use of condoms for individuals engaging in high-risk sex.

Abstinence: The "A" in ABC. Abstinence programs encourage unmarried individuals to abstain from sexual activity as the best and only certain way to protect themselves from exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

ABY: Abstinence and behavior change in youth. Interventions targeting youth that promote sexual abstinence.

AIDS: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome. An immune disorder that renders the body more susceptible to opportunistic infections such as certain types of cancers. AIDS is caused by HIV and spread primarily through body fluids, especially blood and semen.

Anti-prostitution loyalty oath: The anti-prostitution loyalty oath is a restriction applied to all HIV/AIDS funding. The amendment that legalized the oath was proposed by Rep. Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican, in July 2004. It mandates that no money designated for HIV/AIDS programs "may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking." It also requires that any organization that receives U.S. government funds to combat HIV/AIDS must explicitly state that it opposes prostitution and sex trafficking in order to receive federal funding.

ART: Antiretroviral treatment or therapy. An array of clinical support for patients of which antiretroviral drugs (ARV) represent only about 30 percent. Other facets include non-ARV medications; laboratory tests; training and support for health care personnel; physical infrastructure, including clinics, counseling rooms, laboratories, distribution and logistics systems; and monitoring and reporting systems.

ARV: Antiretrovirals are medications that hinder HIV (and other retroviruses) from making copies of themselves. Antiretrovirals have transformed HIV/AIDS from a fatal condition to a manageable illness.

At-risk group: A specific population that stands a higher chance of being exposed to HIV, including sex workers and their clients; sexually active discordant couples (one HIV-positive partner and one uninfected partner); couples who don't know their HIV status; substance abusers (IDUs); men who have sex with men; and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Be Faithful: The "B" of ABC. Be Faithful programs encourage individuals to practice fidelity in marriage and other sexual relationships as a critical way to reduce the risk of exposure to HIV.

Behavior change: PEPFAR supports behavior change programs geared toward getting youth and members of "high-risk" groups to adopt less risky behaviors following the ABC approach.

Brand-name drug: A drug that is manufactured under a proprietary, trademarked name.

CBO: Community-Based Organization. CBOs are important PEPFAR partners because they are often among the "first responders" to community-based needs and have broad reach among hard-to-reach or underserved populations.

CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC, which comes under the Department of Health and Human Services, coordinates public health efforts "to prevent and control infectious and chronic diseases, injuries, workplace hazards, disabilities and environmental health threats." http://www.cdc.gov/

Concentrated epidemic: For HIV purposes, an epidemic in which HIV has affected at least 5 percent of individuals in a defined population but is not well established in the general population.

Condoms and related activities: See "other prevention."

COP: Country Operational Plan; Each of the 15 PEPFAR "focus countries" must provide a COP at the beginning of each fiscal year detailing programs and activities planned for the country. First released in redacted form through a Freedom of Information Act request to ICIJ, OGAC later posted all COPs on its Web site. They can be found at http://foia.state.gov/COP.asp.

Correct and consistent use of condoms: The "C" of ABC. Correct and consistent use of condoms programs emphasize that proper use of condoms reduces but does not eliminate the risk of contracting HIV. PEPFAR estimates their effectiveness rate to be 80 to 90 percent and provides access to condoms for those most at risk for transmitting or becoming infected with HIV.

Cross-generational sex: Sex between partners who are at least 10 years apart in age in which the girl is the younger partner; considered a high-risk activity for the transmission of HIV.

CSW: Commercial sex worker. Considered to be a high-risk group for contracting HIV, commercial sex workers are individuals who trade sex for money and/or goods.

Discordant couple: A couple consisting of one HIV-positive partner and one uninfected partner.

FBO: Faith-Based Organization. Nearly a quarter of all PEPFAR partners (both prime and sub) are faith-based organizations with religious affiliations. PEPFAR sees FBOs as a valuable resource because they can make contact with hard-to-reach and underserved populations in heavily religious countries (which many focus countries are) and are often the main providers of health services.

FDA: Food and Drug Administration. The FDA, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, must approve all pharmaceutical products before they can be made available to the public. See "generic drug."

FGM: Female Genital Mutilation. Also called "female circumcisions," FGM refers to procedures which partially or completely remove the external female genitalia. Such procedures are mostly done in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, though are not necessarily tied to a religion. Women who have had FGM are much more susceptible to infection, and the unsanitary conditions under which the procedure is sometimes performed can result in HIV transmission.

Focus Countries: Fifteen countries (12 in Africa, plus Haiti, Guyana and Vietnam) receiving special emphasis from PEPFAR because together they account for more than half of the world's estimated 40 million HIV infections.

FSW: Female sex worker. A woman who trades sex for money or goods.

GNI: Gross national income. The GNI is the total value of all goods and services produced within a given country, plus income received from other countries but excluding payments made to other countries.

Generalized epidemic: For HIV purposes, an epidemic in which HIV affects more than 1 percent of the general population.

Generic drug: A drug manufactured under its chemical or "generic" name after a patent expires on the brand-name version. A generic drug is essentially the same as its formerly patented counterpart but can be sold for a much lower price because the cost of bringing it to market is not as high. Currently, 26 FDA-approved generic HIV drugs are available. PEPFAR funds can be used to purchase only FDA-approved drugs, and 14 of the 15 focus countries are now purchasing generic drugs through PEPFAR.

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Started in 2002, the Global Fund is an independent, multilateral organization. It receives funds from governments around the world, including the U.S., to fight AIDS. The Global Fund disburses for programs but does not implement them. The Global Fund is partnering with PEPFAR in treatment, supply chain, monitoring and evaluation and other programs in some of the focus countries. http://www.theglobalfund.org

Great Lakes Initiative on AIDS: GLIA. In 1999 six countries from the Great Lakes Region of Africa — Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda — came together to acknowledge that in order to address the growing HIV epidemic, a broader, more regionally based response needed to be undertaken.

HAART: Highly active antiretroviral therapy. The combination of several antiretroviral medications used to slow the rate at which HIV makes copies of itself in the body.

High-risk group: See "at-risk group."

HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus. The virus that causes AIDS, HIV kills and damages the body's immune system cells, which hinders the body's ability to fight off infections. HIV is spread through certain body fluids, particularly blood and semen.

Human Development Index: A composite index, compiled by the U.N. Development Program, which measures achievement in three basic dimensions of human development — a long and healthy life, literacy and a decent standard of living. http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/indicators/1.html

IDU: Injecting drug user, considered a "high-risk" or "at risk" group for contracting HIV.

Incidence rate: HIV incidence refers to the number of new infections over a period of time (usually one year). See "prevalence rate."

Internally displaced persons: People who have been forced to flee their homes to escape armed conflict, generalized violence, human rights abuses or natural or man-made disasters.

Leadership Act: The Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 authorized PEPFAR and promoted the so-called ABC approach, requiring that starting in fiscal 2006, 33 percent of prevention funds be spent on abstinence until marriage activities.

Microbicides: Substances being tested by researchers that might reduce the infectivity of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

MSM: Men who have sex with men; considered a high-risk group for contracting and transmitting HIV/AIDS.

New Partners Initiative: An initiative that will provide $200 million through fiscal 2008 for grants to new partners providing HIV/AIDS prevention and care services in an effort to identify potential new PEPFAR partner organizations and to increase their capacity to provide care and prevention services.

NGO: Nongovernmental organization. NGOs, which include FBOs and CBOs, make up a majority of PEPFAR partners.

OGAC: Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, based in the State Department, which was created to coordinate and oversee the U.S. global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The current coordinator is Ambassador Mark Dybul. http://www.state.gov/s/gac/

Orphans: The "O" of OVC. Children under 15 who have lost one or both parents.

Other prevention: "Other prevention" includes activities such as programs for high-risk groups to increase their awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention behaviors and their access to HIV prevention services, such as condom promotion and distribution; condom social marketing; substance abuse prevention programs; management and treatment of sexually transmitted infections; and messages or programs to reduce injection drug use and related risks. In February 2006, OGAC changed "other prevention" to "condoms and related activities."

OVC: Orphans and Vulnerable Children, a component of PEPFAR's "care" activities. According to OGAC, OVC services include caregiver training, access to education, legal aid, emotional and psychological care, and food and nutritional support. See "Orphans" and "Vulnerable Children."

Palliative care: The entire spectrum of care for people living with HIV/AIDS; it differs from other palliative care in that it is broader than simply "end-of-life" care.

Partnership for Supply Chain Management: PSCM was established in fiscal 2005 to ensure that an uninterrupted supply of high-quality, low-cost medicine and supplies flows through a transparent accountable system.

PEPFAR: President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Introduced by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address, PEPFAR is a five-year, $15 billion initiative to combat the spread of HIV through prevention, care and treatment programs.

PEPFAR's 2-7-10 goals: Targets to treat 2 million infected people using ART, prevent 7 million new infections and care for 10 million infected or affected by HIV by 2008.

PLWHA: People Living with HIV/AIDS.

PMTCT: Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV.

Prevalence rate: The percentage of the population that is estimated to be HIV-positive. Estimates of HIV prevalence are often based on surveillance of pregnant women in prenatal clinics or population-based surveys.

Prevention: HIV/AIDS prevention activities have five components: abstinence/be faithful; "other prevention"; prevention of mother-to-child transmission; safe medical injections; blood safety.

Prime partner: An organization that receives direct PEPFAR funding.

SCMS: Supply Chain Management System. SCMS delivers medications and other HIV-related commodities to HIV/AIDS programs around the world by strengthening existing supply chains and establishing new ones. Through PEPFAR, SCMS is administered by the Partnership for Supply Chain Management.

Secondary abstinence: Returning to abstinence after having had sex.

Seroprevalence: The proportion of people in a given population who test positive for HIV (or other infections).

Sub-partner: An organization that receives PEPFAR funds through a prime partner.

Sub-Saharan Africa: The region of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Sub-Saharan Africa, which has 11 percent of the world's population, accounts for more than 64 percent of the global HIV-infected population.

Survival sex: Sex in exchange for items needed to survive. Similar to transactional sex. Individuals engaging in this practice are considered a "high-risk" group.

TB: Tuberculosis, an infection found mostly in the lungs whose symptoms include heavy coughing, tiredness, fever and weight loss. TB is a common infection among people with AIDS.

Transactional sex: Sex in exchange for money or favors. Transactional sex differs from prostitution because it does not imply an occupation and can take the form of long-term relationships.

UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. Launched in 1996 and based in Geneva, UNAIDS is a conglomeration of 10 U.N. system organizations responding to the HIV epidemic. UNAIDS is involved in HIV/AIDS projects in more than 75 countries. The current executive director is Belgian doctor Peter Piot. http://www.unaids.org/en/

USAID: The U.S. Agency for International Development is the principal U.S. government agency that coordinates assistance to countries "recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty and engaging in democratic reforms." USAID is one of the agencies involved in PEPFAR and receives the bulk of PEPFAR money. http://www.usaid.gov/

VCT: Voluntary Counseling and Testing. According to USAID, VCT serves as a link between the prevention and care components of fighting the HIV epidemic. VCT helps develop personalized programs for people to reduce risky behavior and thus the chance of spreading or contracting the disease.

Vulnerable children: The "VC" of "OVC." Children affected by HIV through the illness of a parent or principal caregiver.

WHO: World Health Organization. The United Nations' specialized agency for health which was founded in 1948 and has 193 member states. http://www.who.int/en/

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