Supported projects

GHEORGHENI - Nine 4-star hotels are being built in the Hungarian part of Romania. The Hungarian government is using public money for this. In total, Hungarian taxpayers have generously subsidised the construction of nine hotels, two of which will be opened in Mures district in the coming days.

IMPERATRIZ - in Brazil, companies with long legacies of environmental destruction and human rights abuses are attracting large amounts of finance from European investors, some of it in the form of green finance - the fastest growing financial sector in the world.

EU - Hundreds of thousands of evictions and people enchained to debt, while financial actors in tax havens as well as EU countries profit from a system that originally was created to stabilize banks. This is the result of an official EU policy on so called non-performing loans, that was adopted as a response to the global financial crisis.

ERBIL/ISTANBUL/ATHENS - The complexity and dangers along migration routes to Europe —including the risk of being swindled by traffickers or robbed by security forces—, have increased the role of an informal banking system that works through “hawala”, a traditional money transfer system based on interpersonal trust

YEREVAN - Since 2017, nearly 100 Armenian citizens have served as proxy directors for a network of companies that have been used by prominent Eastern European oligarchs to move millions of dollars, shift assets from shuttered banks abroad, and pay for lobbying services in the United States.

BRATISLAVA - A couple from Slovakia imported hundreds of frogs from Central America to the EU, completely legally. However, the woman was later apprehended in Germany, where police seized over 100 frogs from her. Some of them of the kind which was never in history imported to Europe legally. Turns out, her husband is a well known person for conservationists in Panama, and for all the wrong reasons.

NAYPYIDAW - This is a story that describes the downfall of the financial sector of Myanmar after the military coup in February 2021. Due to a history of nationalisations and demonetisations, people and businesses lost trust in the banks immediately after the coup. That resulted in a bankrun. 

MAPUTO - The promise of transformative wealth from natural gas has seduced Mozambicans for more than a decade. But as the projects led by TotalEnergies and Eni have started construction, revenues to the country look likely to fall significantly short of expectations.

BRUSSELS - Journalists at KNACK, LeVif and RTBF have joined forces to investigate the peculiar financial management of the non-profit organisation Poverello. They greedily buy real estate that often remains empty. The organisation appears to be very rich, but hardly ever uses its money for working with the poor.

EL ZONTE - El Salvador is the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as its official currency: "One thing is certain: it is here to stay."