ICIJ
Panama Papers Fallout Continues
December 6, 2018
The first criminal charges relating to ICIJ’s 2016 investigation, the Panama Papers, have been filed in the United States. Four men were charged with money laundering and fraud.
“These defendants went to extraordinary lengths to circumvent U.S. tax laws in order to maintain their wealth and the wealth of their clients,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman. There is plenty of detail for those who want it in the department’s indictment.
The Panama Papers investigation was based on a trove of 11.5 million files from inside Mossack Fonseca that were leaked to reporters Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier at German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with ICIJ. The investigation, done in collaboration with more than 370 reporters working for 100 media outlets, exposed the offshore holdings of world political leaders, links to global scandals, and details of the hidden financial dealings of fraudsters, drug traffickers, billionaires, celebrities, sports stars and more.
The Guardian
Meryl Streep will take the lead in The Laundromat, a Steven Soderbergh-directed thriller about the Panama Papers.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar winner will potentially star alongside Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, who are both in early talks to join, in the fact-based tale. The Panama Papers was a set of leaked documents that shared financial information of offshore entities, revealing fraud, tax evasion and attempts to avoid international sanctions.
The film will be based on Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite, a book by journalist Jake Bernstein. It will be adapted by Scott Z Burns, a frequent Soderbergh collaborator whose credits include Contagion and Side Effects.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/14/meryl-streep-steven-soderbergh-panama-papers-thriller
Non-Profit Journalism
January 8, 2018
At the 2018 Golden Globes ceremony, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced two grants of $1 million each to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the Committee To Protect Journalists.
The grants, which came less than eight weeks after the groundbreaking Paradise Papers investigation by ICIJ, will go toward supporting investigative journalism and providing better protection for journalists.
‘“There’s never been a more important time to safeguard the truth by supporting investigative journalism,” said ICIJ director Gerard Ryle. “We are extremely grateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its great expression of support for the ICIJ and for the important work being done by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“Truth is under attack, both politically and economically, and the brutal reality of recent years is that journalists routinely risk their lives just for doing their jobs, even in countries once thought safe.
“One of the main aims of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is to bring accountability on a global scale. We bring journalists together to safeguard the truth and to safeguard each other. Along the way, we bring a new kind of scrutiny to world events and complex problems – using data and document-supported facts that cannot easily be dismissed.
“By joining giant teams of journalists and news organizations from all over the world to work together on issues of global significance, we are able to achieve results and impact that no one outlet could achieve independently. “
This is the first time a donation announcement has been made during a live telecast of the event.’