White Collars, Dirty Hands: A podcast by OCCRP and La No Ficción

With reporting from Miami to Madrid, Venezuelan journalist Laura Weffer unpacks the mechanics of the corrupt loan schemes that allowed elites to siphon off more than a billion dollars from Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.

To learn more about organized crime and corruption, sign up for weekly updates about Venezuela and the rest of the world at occrp.org/newsletter
This podcast was originally produced in Spanish. Following recent events in Venezuela, we are sharing it with a wider audience through this human-reviewed AI translation. This is an experiment, so minor imperfections may be present. Original Spanish podcast below:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5inyH4WRo1H82KgvmnmUHh
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cuello-blanco-manos-sucias/id1872501127
We welcome your feedback on this experiment at occrp.org/podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Exiled Venezuelan journalist Laura Weffer travels to Florida to look for Carmelo Urdaneta, a former oil ministry official at the center of the $1.2 billion “Money Flight” scandal.

To learn more about organized crime and corruption, sign up for weekly updates about Venezuela and the rest of the world at occrp.org/newsletter
This podcast was originally produced in Spanish. Following recent events in Venezuela, we are sharing it with a wider audience through this human-reviewed AI translation. This is an experiment, so minor imperfections may be present. Original Spanish podcast below:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5inyH4WRo1H82KgvmnmUHh
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cuello-blanco-manos-sucias/id1872501127
We welcome your feedback on this experiment at occrp.org/podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Madrid, March 2017. A Swiss banker, an oil executive from PDVSA—Venezuela's state oil company—and three financial advisors meet to discuss business. They seek to move millions in corrupt funds without anyone noticing. But one of them is wearing a hidden microphone and records this conversation, in which a money laundering operation is structured, part of a scheme that diverted at least $600 million in Venezuelan public funds.

From OCCRP and the Colombian production company La No Ficción, this investigative series follows exiled Venezuelan journalist Laura Weffer as she tracks down Carmelo Urdaneta, a former high-level official in Venezuela's oil ministry who sits at the heart of a billion-dollar money laundering conspiracy.

Over five episodes, the podcast unspools how millions of dollars were embezzled from the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), between 2014 and 2018 by a circle of insiders who spent the cash on real estate, yachts, and other luxury assets.

Behind these financial tricks lies immense personal suffering; The series also traces the human cost of this corruption, including Laura’s own journey into exile and the voices of other Venezuelans who were battling a severe economic crisis at the same time that their oil money was being “cleaned” by professionals abroad.
This podcast was originally produced in Spanish. Following recent events in Venezuela, we are sharing it with a wider audience through this human-reviewed AI translation. This is an experiment, so minor imperfections may be present. Original Spanish podcast below:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5inyH4WRo1H82KgvmnmUHh
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cuello-blanco-manos-sucias/id1872501127
We welcome your feedback on this experiment at occrp.org/podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Repressed by Venezuela's government on one side. Muzzled by Swiss banking secrecy laws on the other. Yet against these odds, a team of reporters exposed how corrupt Venezuelan elites stashed stolen oil profits in Credit Suisse accounts.

In this episode, Nick Wallis interviews OCCRP editor Nathan Jaccard and Armando.Info editor-in-chief Valentina Lares on how a leak of Credit Suisse customer data sparked a global investigation revealing how oil officials convicted of corruption stashed their millions in Switzerland’s notoriously secretive banking sector.

We also hear from Latin American financial fraud expert Steven Bodzin about the story’s implications for Venezuela and Swiss banks, how Venezuela’s ongoing crisis could end, and who is to blame for the country’s endemic corruption.

Dirty Deeds is a Little Gem production for OCCRP. The host is Nick Wallis. The producer is Lindsay Riley, with research from Phoebe Adler-Ryan and Riham Moussa, at Rethink Audio.

Read the investigation
Black Gold in Swiss Vaults: Venezuelan Elites Hid Stolen Oil Money in Credit Suisse

This week’s guests
Nathan Jaccard - @NJaccard
Valentina Lares - @valetinalares
Steven Bodzin - @guacamayan

Transcript
Read the transcript on the OCCRP website

More information on OCCRP
Keep up with the latest in global organized crime and corruption with our weekly newsletter
Donate
This podcast was originally produced in Spanish. Following recent events in Venezuela, we are sharing it with a wider audience through this human-reviewed AI translation. This is an experiment, so minor imperfections may be present. Original Spanish podcast below:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5inyH4WRo1H82KgvmnmUHh
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cuello-blanco-manos-sucias/id1872501127
We welcome your feedback on this experiment at occrp.org/podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Russian forces escalated their war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Western governments scrambled to sanction oligarchs connected to Putin’s war machine. Yet the task is far from simple when Kremlin-connected tycoons hide their billions in offshore trusts and Swiss bank accounts — and even behind the names of their family members.

In this episode, Nick Wallis talks with OCCRP editing duo Miranda Patrucic and Ilya Lozovsky, discussing how billionaire Alisher Usmanov concealed his fortune via secretive companies, business associates and family members — including Swiss bank accounts in his sister’s name despite her seemingly modest trade as a gynecologist.

We also hear from British Member of Parliament Kevin Hollinrake on how Russia’s invasion sparked a campaign to clamp down on dirty money washed through the U.K., as well as how effective Western sanctions have been in choking off the lifelines to Putin’s military campaign.

Dirty Deeds is a Little Gem production for OCCRP. The host is Nick Wallis. The producer is Lindsay Riley at Rethink Audio, with research from Phoebe Adler-Ryan and Riham Moussa.

Read the investigations:
Sanctioning an Oligarch Is Not So Easy: Why the Money Trail of Alisher Usmanov, One of Russia’s Wealthiest Men, Is Difficult to Follow
OCCRP Russian Asset Tracker

This week’s guests:
Miranda Patrucic
Ilya Lozovsky
Kevin Hollinrake

Transcript:
Read the transcript on the OCCRP website.

More information OCCRP:
Keep up with the latest in global organized crime and corruption with our weekly newsletter
Donate

[00:00] Introduction
[02:04] Miranda Patrucic explains why she is interested in investigating oligarchs — and Alisher Usmanov in particular
[03:50] How did the investigation into Usmanov come about?
[06:16] What are the FinCEN Files — and what did they reveal about Usmanov?
[07:55] An explainer of suspicious activity reports and how they’re supposed to stop financial crime
[10:36] How Usmanov’s family is connected to the story
[13:04] Ilya Lozovsky explains how OCCRP told the story via the Russian Asset Tracker
[15:36] Did Western sanctions against Usmanov work against him — and Vladimir Putin’s war effort in Ukraine?
[19:00] Why have there been so many large-scale data leaks in recent years?
[22:07] Kevin Hollinrake on whether tackling money laundering in the U.K. would harm the nation’s economy
[25:45] Updates on how the U.K. is tackling flows of dirty money
[27:33] What needs to be done to clamp down on dirty money in the U.K.?
[33:55] Kevin Hollinrake on whether Western sanctions have been effective against the Russian invasion of Ukraine

This podcast was originally produced in Spanish. Following recent events in Venezuela, we are sharing it with a wider audience through this human-reviewed AI translation. This is an experiment, so minor imperfections may be present. Original Spanish podcast below:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5inyH4WRo1H82KgvmnmUHh
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cuello-blanco-manos-sucias/id1872501127
We welcome your feedback on this experiment at occrp.org/podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.