This is WHALE HUNTING, a weekly podcast that pulls back the curtain on the hidden worlds of money and power, hosted by investigative journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope. Previously long-time reporters for the Wall Street Journal, Tom and Bradley now run Project Brazen, a journalism studio thatâs published stories on everything from US Navy corruption to spycraft in Silicon Valley and embezzlement at the heart of Spainâs royal family.Â
Now, on the Whale Hunting podcast, you can join them as they share whatâs got them talking this week, from the headlines to underworld gossip. Each episode will offer something different, but you can expect obscene tales of corruption, insights on the bizarre habits of billionaires, and conversations with reporters, spies, hostage negotiators, cops, authors, and the occasional criminal. Think of it as dropping in on the watercooler chat at Project Brazenâs office.Â
So join us. Subscribe to Whale Hunting, and find out how the world really works.Â
For more, or to sign up to our newsletter, visit whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.
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From A Curious Worldview: How did MBS rise to power?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 16
Wednesday, December 18, 2024 ⢠Duration 01:21:40
Thanks for listening to season three of Whale Hunting. We've heard from the biographer of the worldâs most secretive billionaire, the man running a TV network under the Taliban, the undercover agent who exposed the worldâs most corrupt bank, and so many more people who have spent months and years revealing hidden worlds of money and power. Weâre taking a short break, but we'll be back in 2025 with brand new episodes.
In the meantime, we'd like to share an episode of A Curious Worldview from Atlas Geographica, podcast in which host Ryan Faulkner-Hogg brings together âgood journalists, good stories, great business and great authors.â In this episode, he interviews Whale Hunting co-host Bradley Hope about Blood and Oil, his book on the meteoric rise of Mohammed bin Salman. A Curious Worldview touches upon many of the same themes as this podcast, and we hope youâll give it a listen.
A Curious Worldview on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/curious-worldview-podcast/id1540424160
A Curious Worldview on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/61wcpA8fkOQCAGrOfHgkig
A Curious Worldview on other podcast apps: https://curiousworldview.buzzsprout.com/
You can purchase a copy of Blood and Oil, the book on MBS that Bradley co-wrote, here: https://bookshop.org/a/107584/9780306846632
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How did federal agents infiltrate the worldâs dirtiest bank?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 15
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 ⢠Duration 40:17
A rare opportunity arises when global financial institutions implode: a brief window into how the world really works. Thereâs an opportunity to learn how money is laundered and where itâs coming from, which financial instruments or jurisdictions are being used to aid and abet criminals, and which drug lords or even governments are trying to hide what theyâre up to. In 1991, the Pakistani-owned Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was shuttered by regulators for helping bad actors the world over move criminal cash. A window was opened, and this week on Whale Hunting, Bradley Hope is joined by a man who had a front-row seat: former IRS and DEA undercover agent Robert Mazur, who was the key witness at the trial of numerous BCCI executives who he befriended while posing as a money launderer for Colombiaâs Medellin Cartel in the late 1980s. They discuss Robertâs time undercover, how he became a central character in the downfall of BCCI and infiltrated Pablo Escobarâs notorious cartel, and how he came to realise that one of the banks through which Escobar moved his ill-gotten gains, BCCI, was no anomaly: There are scores of international banks with corporate incentives to provide banking services to dictators, money launderers and even terrorists.
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
Robert Mazurâs books about his time undercover: The Infiltrator and The Betrayal
The Infiltrator has since been adapted into a feature film starring Breaking Badâs Robert Cranston as Robert Mazur.
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Why does Elon Musk need private spies?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 14
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 ⢠Duration 40:15
For the right price, a billionaire can buy almost anything in the private intelligence industry. Investigators will covertly dig through bins, pose as friendly faces to deceptively extract information, and even coordinate offensive hacking attacks to access private data. Although this by no means represents the whole industry, there is nothing off-menu to the world's wealthiest if you know the right people. And Elon Musk â the proprietor of the worldâs deepest pockets â apparently uses private spies liberally, often to acquire information relevant to his personal life and reputation. Apparently, he's just desperate to control everything. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley is joined by fellow aficionado of the private intelligence industry Alexi Mostrous, Investigations Editor at Tortoise Media. They discuss why Elon Musk uses private spies for personal matters, the relationship between journalists and the intelligence industry, and how Bradley once pranked an overly eager investigator to protect his source.
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
Elonâs Spies, Alexi Mostrousâ latest podcast for Tortoise
Walterâs War, a podcast about Oliver Lewis presented by Tortoiseâs Basia Cummings
Neil Gerrard, a lawyer who represented ENRC and is known for representing wealthy clients in high profile legal spats
The controversial Christopher Steele dossier, which was published by BuzzFeed News
Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Cogan and Ryan Mac
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What does Iran achieve by outsourcing assassination attempts in the West?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 13
Wednesday, November 27, 2024 ⢠Duration 25:27
Iranâs war with Israel and the U.S. has been waged through numerous proxies â Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen â but more recently, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, have been âoutsourcingâ their operations on foreign soil to lesser-known actors. At least 33 attempted hits and abductions have allegedly been orchestrated from Iran since 2020, carried out by individuals with little or no obvious connection to the Islamic Republic. Pakistani citizens have been foiled plotting attacks in Greece, and an Azerbaijani gang was recruited in the U.S. to assassinate an Iranian American journalist. Iranâs tactics are becoming increasingly reckless abroad, stoking fear among its known enemies â whether Israeli citizens or Iranian dissidents living in exile. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley is joined in the studio by Reuters features editor Cassell Bryan-Low. They discuss Cassellâs investigation into Iranâs use of hitmen on foreign soil, how frequently these operations are thwarted, and what the ultimate objectives of such operations are: revenge, sabotage or something bigger?
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
âMurder for hire: Inside Iranâs proxy war with Israel in the Westâ by Renee Maltezou, Cassell Bryan-Low, Yannis Souliotis and Phil Stewart.
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Do Hezbollah's booby-trapped pagers herald a new era of warfare?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 12
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 ⢠Duration 32:14
Conventional warfare no longer exists. Drones, offensive hacking techniques and even sonic weaponry is upending how conflict is waged â and the recent Israeli intelligence operation to plant explosives in pagers used by Hezbollahâs militants may well prove to be a watershed moment. It claimed 39 lives and wounded thousands of Lebanese civilians in markets and public places across the country, a brutal illustration of how warfare is moving away from battlefields and borders. This week on Whale Hunting, Tom is joined by Reuters Bureau Chief in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan Maya Gebeily, and Senior Reuters Correspondent David Gauthier-Villars. They discuss how Israelâs Mossad managed to deceive Hezbollah into buying explosive-rigged devices, how their detonation marked a significant escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, and what it reveals about how modern warfare is evolving.
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
âHow Israelâs bulky pager fooled Hezbollahâ by Maya Gebeily, James Pearson and David Gauthier-Villars.
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Why was the FBI fascinated by the artist Mark Lombardi?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 11
Wednesday, November 13, 2024 ⢠Duration 15:47
Mark Lombardi was on the cusp of international success with his provocative artwork. So why was the 48-year-old found dead, and his death ruled a suicide? And why did the FBI ask to examine one of his artworks in the direct aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks? Markâs life is the subject of Brazenâs newest podcast, The Illuminator â and in this special episode of Whale Hunting, we hear from art curator Lawrence Rinder to shed light on Mark Lombardiâs art and legacy.
Lawrence was a curator at the Whitney Museum in 2000 and acquired a number of Mark Lombardi pieces about a scandal-ridden bank called BCCI, shuttered for money laundering. Itâs this work the FBI were interested in â but why?
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
BCCI-ICIC & FAB (4th Version), the painting acquired by Lawrence for the Whitney Museum
The Illuminator: Art, Conspiracy and Madness, Brazenâs newest show â with episodes out every Monday.
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How did the FSB infiltrate one of Swedenâs biggest banks?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 10
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 ⢠Duration 35:23
Honeypot operations are one of the oldest tricks in the espionage playbook â get access to sensitive information through a wily femme fatale. Scandinavian banking giant Swedbank was recently the target of such a plot. By leveraging kompromat about top executives â some of whom had a proclivity for unfaithful sexual relationships and drug abuse â Russian intelligence were able to ensure that oligarchs could launder money through Swedbank. Executives would sign off on suspicious, multi-billion-dollar transactions heading toward the Western financial system. This money would then fund Russiaâs more furtive influence operations. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley is joined by Axel Gordh HumlesjĂś, an investigative journalist at the Swedish national broadcaster SVT. They discuss how Axel learned that FSB agents were stationed outside his Stockholm apartment, what happened at Swedbank, and his meeting with the FSB-affiliated femme fatale who was the beating heart of the operation.
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
Axel Gordh HumlesjĂś and Lars Bergeâs book about the story, The Honey Trap: Swedbank, Russia and the Worldâs Biggest Money Laundering Scheme
Catherine Belton, author of Putinâs People
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How did Credit Suisse become the most scandal-ridden bank of all time?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 9
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 ⢠Duration 33:51
Swiss banking has long been synonymous with secrecy, a harbinger of two things in the financial world: opportunity and risk. And Credit Suisse struggled to handle this balancing act for years, leading to its spectacular implosion in 2023. Switzerlandâs second largest bank had long been unscrupulous about housing ill-gotten wealth. Its bankers looked after Nazi loot and did business with âkings of kickbacks,â even collapsing the economy of Mozambique and employing private investigators to spy on its own employees. Joining us on this weekâs Whale Hunting is investigative reporter Duncan Mavin, who sits down with Bradley to discuss the long string of scandals that preceded Credit Suisseâs collapse, the surprising touch paper for its disintegration, and a well-hidden industry secret: that bankers and hedge-funders do very little actual banking.Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
Duncan Mavinâs new book, Meltdown: Scandal, Sleaze and the Collapse of Credit Suisse
His book about the collapse of Greensill:Â Pyramid of Lies: The Prime Minister, the Banker and the Billion-Pound Scandal
Rob Copelandâs book, The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
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How do you stop Putinâs war machine?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 8
Wednesday, October 23, 2024 ⢠Duration 35:58
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Western economies scrambled to coordinate an offensive of their own: sanctions. They weaponized economic tools in the hope of blunting Putinâs attacks, and more than $300 billion in Russian assets were frozen in Europe. Almost overnight, these governments embarked on an unprecedented financial experiment that is drastically altering the geopolitical order â but at what cost?
Joining us this week on Whale Hunting is investigative reporter Stephanie Baker, who sits down with Tom to discuss how and where sanctions are working, the inter-oligarch war playing out between antagonistic Russian tycoons, and how cryptocurrency, technology supply chains, and unscrupulous enablers all help Russiaâs war machine rumble on. Not to mention Moscow-on-the-Gulf: the new home for Russian roubles in the UAE.
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
Stephanie Bakerâs new book, Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia.
Read an except of her book in Bloomberg here:Â âThey Have Stolen Our Businessâ: When You Leave Russia, Putin Sets the Terms
Sanctions evasions via Hong Kong shell companies:Â The Illicit Flow of Technology to Russia Goes Through This Hong Kong Address
Zeke Fauxâs recent book on cryptoâs wild ride:Â Number Go Up
Zekeâs appearance on Whale Hunting earlier this year
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast â and subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com. Subscribing gives you access to more from Whale Hunting, and helps support our work.
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Is Masayoshi Son the richest man youâve never heard of?
Season 3 ¡ Episode 7
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 ⢠Duration 29:03
For a few days in the early 2000s, Masayoshi Son â nicknamed Masa â was the richest man in the world. A few days later, it all came tumbling down. The founder and CEO of the Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank had failed to predict the future â an intuitive gift that first made his name as an investor, and his first billions. But even the most catastrophic losses wouldnât stop his gambling habits, betting big on start-ups from Alibaba to WeWork over the next 20 years â all on a journey to becoming one of the most controversial venture capitalists of all time. In this weekâs episode of Whale Hunting, Bradley sits down with the former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber to discuss Masa: the man behind the billions, how he calculates his bets, and why he likes to compare himself to Napoleon.
Mentioned in this weekâs episode:
Lionelâs new biography of Masa:Â Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japanâs Masayoshi Son
For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast â and subscribe to our newsletter.Â
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