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Frankie Goodway,
Saturday Editor
"Hi there. It’s a stop the presses moment this morning – I’ve logged in to let you know about our latest story. It’s an explanation of how one man, accused of commanding the massacre of thousands, could fail to overthrow his own brother, flee the nation he’d helped to shatter – and then live the high life in Europe, maintaining ties to the intelligence services and moving millions of pounds through offshore accounts and massive properties. It’s the story of Rifaat al-Assad, the Butcher of Hama.”
How Europe sheltered the alleged war criminal Rifaat al-Assad
In 1982, an elite unit of the Syrian army marched into Hama, an ancient city in the centre of the country. They were there to put down resistance to the Assad regime, at that point led by Hafez al-Assad, father of the now-deposed Bashar. And those soldiers answered to one man: Rifaat al-Assad, Hafez’s brother and Bashar’s uncle.
In a few weeks, they killed tens of thousands of people.
Two years later, Rifaat was sent into exile. Our investigation has uncovered how he lived a gilded life in Europe, building a property empire and cultivating connections with the French intelligence services. Ultimately he escaped justice, fleeing back to Syria and dying in January this year. But the states which sheltered him still have questions to answer and are holding almost a billion euros that Syrians, broken by nearly 14 years of civil war, desperately need.
Inside the story
Ed Siddons has been investigating the financial affairs of Rifaat al-Assad for more than 18 months. Along the way he uncovered a stunning number of people who had dealings with the “Butcher of Hama”, from a financial adviser in Guernsey to Queen Elizabeth II’s solicitor. Now we can add French spies to that list.
Assad’s finances, Ed told me, are an example of the global laundromat in action. This investigation focuses on Rifaat’s vast property portfolio in France, Spain and the UK, but behind the scenes were countless other jurisdictions concealing Rifaat’s loot – including Jersey, Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. When we spoke, Ed's anger at all the authorities that failed to hold Assad to justice was palpable. He included the UK in that list: “The British never even opened an investigation,” he said, “and that’s shameful.”
The war on Iran could send UK pensions up in smoke
The pension pots of thousands of local government workers – including school staff, bin collectors and social workers – have been invested in funds that have poured money into oil and gas assets in the Middle East. Now those assets are prime targets for Iranian missiles. Almost £3bn in UK pensions has gone into these infrastructure funds, much of that via deals brokered by BlackRock. But when these pipelines and gas plants take direct hits from Iranian rockets – which some have – it’s UK pension holders bearing all the risk.
Inside the story
With one of my other hats on, I built the map included in this story. Because tracing these deals and investments is so complex (and the information isn’t always public) it was a tricky job. But seeing these “solid investments” in a sea of orange attacks makes it obvious how risky betting our future on fossil fuels really is.
Wise investigated for half a billion in suspicious transactions
Wise, the money transfer business with the bright green branding and 15 million customers across the world, is being investigated by Belgian prosecutors over concerns criminals have moved half a billion euros through its accounts. Officials are investigating whether Wise’s European operation has complied with anti-money laundering regulations. Those are the laws meant to stop the proceeds of corruption, fraud and drug trafficking from being processed by legitimate financial institutions.
Inside the story
Simon Lock got the Wise story while working on a project run by European Investigation Collaborations – possibly the only organisation with a more “does what it says on the tin” name than us. The whole project is called Dirty Payments. Over more than a year the newsrooms involved have been uncovering wild scams and tracing vast flows of suspicious transactions through the global payments system. You might have seen Simon’s QR code scam story last year – that was from the same project.
The Wise development was brought to the group by one of our partner newsrooms with a new lead. It’s actually a rare case of us getting a lot of credit – as the only English language partner – for a little bit of work. Usually our collaborations are the other way around. We’ll take it, but credit where credit is due: this wouldn’t have been possible without Belgium’s Le Soir and Der Standaard, France’s Mediapart, Germany’s Der Spiegel, Netherlands’ NRC, Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter, Spain’s InfoLibre and Italy’s Espresso.
⚡ Immediate impact
You know what? I’ll let this graph tell the story:
Yes, we did publish on June 1, how did you know?
Reach and the far-right on immigration
Last week Reach published stories across their local papers inviting readers to find out “how many asylum seekers are living in your area”. Some took on a particularly hostile edge, with The Express’s headline accusing Labour of a “new scandal” – although there’s little new or scandalous to it, particularly since Reach’s figures included Ukrainians sheltered under the Homes for Ukraine scheme that’s been running for four years.
But this coverage – and the predictable responses from many readers – falls into old patterns, Gareth Davies pointed out. There needs to be more thoughtful, people-focused journalism on immigration. That was made only too clear this week when Parliament debated a petition asking for the immigration status, nationality, religion and ethnicity of any child sex offenders to be published. It was, some MPs argued, an attempt to use children as a “shield for prejudice”, and victims as “ammunition in a culture war”.
Inside the story
We’re launching a long-term project exposing how hate towards migrants is spread, who profits from it and how it affects people and society. Fact-based reporting, supported by statistics like those released by the ONS, will play an important role in our work. But countering harmful narratives also requires positive stories told by people with lived experience of migration. If you want to be a part of this effort, please get in touch at [email protected].
⚡ More impact this week
Tech reporter Effie Webb was in Parliament this week, speaking to MPs and peers about her Danny Bones investigation and the hate economy work the tech team has been doing.
She told me that people in the room were shocked to hear that Danny Bones’s creators had been funded by a political party (the far-right Advance UK), and there were murmurings about amending legislation to guard against similar projects using AI to spread disinformation and sow division.
Effie (centre, in blue) presenting her investigation to the all party parliamentary group on political and media literacy
Effie’s writing more about this event and how it might play out for our members-only newsletter, Classified, next month. So why not join our community of members, the Bureau Insiders, to make sure you hear every detail!
What we’ve been reading
🔴 A harrowing account of the failures that led to police officers discovering a woman’s dead body being wheeled through Walthamstow Market a year after she died the-londoner.co.uk
🔴 A major visa business has incentivised aggressive and sometimes dishonest up-selling of “premium” services to travellers across Africa, Asia and the Middle East lighthousereports.com
🔴 This empathetic exploration of the controversies at the heart of the push to treat long Covid that have led to despair and death threats wired.com
If you like Uncovered, feel free to forward it to a friend! It’s free to subscribe.
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