Gerard Ryle

Last updated

Gerard Ryle
Born
London, England[ citation needed ]
NationalityIrish Australian
OccupationInvestigative journalist
Known forDirector, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Gerard Ryle (born 1965 [1] ) is an Irish-Australian investigative reporter who has written on subjects including politics, financial and medical scandals, and police corruption. From 2011, he has been director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which has published research on international tax evasion and money laundering, citing the leaked Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Pandora Papers.

Contents

Early life

Gerard Ryle was born in London to Irish parents. From Tralee, County Kerry in Ireland, he worked for the Irish Press in his early career. His great-grandfather, Maurice P Ryle, was also a journalist : he was the editor of the Kerry People, then worked as editor of the Evening Herald and deputy editor of the Irish Independent. [2]

Career

Ryle emigrated from his native Ireland to Australia in 1988 and has worked for the Fairfax newspapers The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald . In 2007-2009, he exposed the international fraudster Tim Johnston who had deceived the governments of Australia, Britain, Russia and other countries over the Firepower Pill. [3]

In September 2011, he was appointed Director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., USA. [4]

In April 2013, ICIJ published a financial leak, the Offshore leaks, comprising tens of thousands of offshore bank accounts, in which many prominent international figures were implicated, including the ex-wife of Marc Rich, Azerbaijan's ruling family, the daughter of Imelda Marcos, and the late Baron Elie de Rothschild. [5] The leak was the largest ever, at more than 160 times the size in gigabytes of the United States diplomatic cables leak in 2010. "To analyze the documents, ICIJ collaborated with reporters from The Guardian and the BBC in the U.K., Le Monde in France, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany, The Washington Post , the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and 31 other media partners around the world." [6] The 15-month investigation began when Ryle brought ICIJ a hard drive that he received by mail from an anonymous informant.

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Practitioners sometimes use the terms "watchdog reporting" or "accountability reporting".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Public Integrity</span> American investigative journalism nonprofit since 1989

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to counter the corrosive effects of inequality by holding powerful interests accountable and equipping the public with knowledge to drive change." With over 50 staff members, CPI is one of the largest nonprofit investigative centers in America. It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Firepower International was a fraudulent company that advertised as a Hong Kong-based company owned and operated by Global Fuel Technologies Ltd, specializing in technology purporting to reduce the fuel consumption and environmental impact of petrol-operated vehicles. There were other offices in Sydney, China, Rhodes, Athens and Papua New Guinea, according to the now-defunct official company website. However, "in reality it was a handful of people in an industrial estate in Perth", who were conducting a complex of fraudulent operations. The original entity—Firepower Operations Pty Ltd—was a A$1 company, first registered in December 2004, owned by Firepower Holdings Group Ltd, a company with an address in the British Virgin Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joachim Dyfvermark</span>

Joachim Dyfvermark is a Swedish investigative reporter/producer working for the current affairs program Uppdrag granskning broadcast on Sveriges Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jérôme Cahuzac</span> French politician

Jérôme André Cahuzac is a French surgeon and former politician who served as Minister of the Budget at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance under President François Hollande from 2012 to 2013. A former member of the Socialist Party (PS), he previously was the member of the National Assembly for the 3rd constituency of Lot-et-Garonne from 1997 to 2002 and again from 2007 to 2012. He resigned from his ministership and was expelled from his party amidst the Cahuzac affair, in which he was accused and subsequently convicted of tax fraud.

Michael Hudson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American investigative journalist. He is currently head of investigations at the Guardian US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuix</span>

Nuix Ltd is an Australian technology company that produces investigative analytics and intelligence software for extracting knowledge from unstructured data. The applications of the company's technology reportedly include digital forensics, financial crime, insider investigations, data privacy, data governance, eDiscovery and regulatory compliance. As of December 2020, the company's software was reportedly used by 1000 customers in 79 countries. The company has its headquarters in Sydney, Australia with offices in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C., with personnel in Australia, France, Spain, Hungary, Serbia, Belgium and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Offshore Leaks</span> Disclosure of tax haven client data in 2013

Offshore Leaks is a report disclosing details of 130,000 offshore accounts that came out in April 2013. Some observers have called it the biggest hit against international tax fraud of all times, although it has been pointed out that normal businesses may use the offshore legislation to ease formalities in international trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swiss Leaks</span> 2015 expose of tax avoidance scheme

Swiss Leaks is the name of a journalistic investigation, released in February 2015, of a giant tax evasion scheme allegedly operated with the knowledge and encouragement of the British multinational bank HSBC via its Swiss subsidiary, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse). Triggered by leaked information from French computer analyst Hervé Falciani on accounts held by over 100,000 clients and 20,000 offshore companies with HSBC in Geneva, the disclosed information was then called "the biggest leak in Swiss banking history".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers</span> 2016 document leak scandal

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, former Panamanian offshore law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and compiled with similar leaks into a searchable database.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramón Fonseca Mora</span> Panamanian novelist and lawyer

Ramón Fonseca Mora is a Panamanian novelist, lawyer and co-founder of Mossack Fonseca, a former law firm based in Panama with more than 40 offices worldwide. He was minister-counselor of Juan Carlos Varela, and president of the Panameñista Party until he was dismissed in March 2016, due to the Brazilian Operation Car Wash. In 2016, Mossack Fonseca was raided by police on suspicion of money-laundering, bribery and corruption. Fonseca and his partner Jürgen Mossack were arrested and jailed on 10 February 2017. They were initially refused bail because the court saw a flight risk, but were released on 21 April 2017 after a judge ruled they had cooperated with the investigation and ordered them each to pay $500,000 in bail. Numerous lawsuits including serious allegations of collusion with despotic regimes, mafia, and global criminals are ongoing.

John Doe is the pseudonym used by the whistleblower in the 2016 Panama Papers leak, who turned over 11.5 million documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. On May 5, 2016, Doe published a statement titled The Revolution Will Be Digitized; Doe explained they made the files public to underline growing income inequality and financial corruption globally. The whistleblower has offered to help prosecutors build their cases, on the condition of legal protection.

This article lists some of the reactions and responses from countries and other official bodies regarding the leak of legal documents related to offshore tax havens from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, called the Panama Papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederik Obermaier</span> German journalist

Frederik Obermaier is a German investigative journalist for the Munich-based newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and author. Together with his colleague Bastian Obermayer in 2016 he initiated and coordinated the Panama Papers-revelations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paradise Papers</span> 2017 documents leak related to offshore investment

The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and a network of more than 380 journalists. Some of the details were made public on 5 November 2017 and stories are still being released.

The Bahama Leaks are 1.3 million internal files from the company register of the Bahamas. After the release of the Panama Papers in 2016, an unknown source handed over internal data from the national corporate registry of the Bahamas to Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, who analyzed them with the help of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). At the same time, ICIJ, Süddeutsche Zeitung and other media partners published detailed reporting before they published an online database of offshore entities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers (South America)</span>

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panama Papers (North America)</span> Details from the Panama Papers concerning North America

The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The files were uncovered and exposed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and other news organizations. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandora Papers</span> 2021 leak of financial documents

The Pandora Papers are 11.9 million leaked documents with 2.9 terabytes of data that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published beginning on 3 October 2021. The leak exposed the secret offshore accounts of 35 world leaders, including current and former presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state as well as more than 100 billionaires, celebrities, and business leaders. The news organizations of the ICIJ described the document leak as their most expansive exposé of financial secrecy yet, containing documents, images, emails and spreadsheets from 14 financial service companies, in nations including Panama, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. The size of the leak surpassed their previous release of the Panama Papers in 2016, which had 11.5 million confidential documents and 2.6 terabytes of data. The ICIJ said it is not identifying its source for the documents.

References

  1. Okuyama, Toshihiro (10 May 2016). "Gerard Ryle: Focus was on politicians". The Asahi Shimbun. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  2. Irish-born journalist heads up ICIJ investigation into offshore account holders Irish Times, 6 April 2013.
  3. Ryle, Gerard "Rise of a man with a magic mystery pill", The Sydney Morning Herald 8 January 2007
  4. About the ICIJ at International Consortium of Investigative Journalists official website
  5. Tax Haven Data Leak Names Names, Raises Questions AAP report at NPR, 5 April 2013. Accessed 7 April 2013
  6. Ryle, Gerard et al. Secret Files Expose Offshore’s Global Impact at ICIJ official website, 3 April 2013. Accessed 7 April 2013