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49 Episodes

Whale Hunting

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.

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About the Show

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 that’s published stories on everything from US Navy corruption to spycraft in Silicon Valley and embezzlement at the heart of Spain’s royal family.

Now, on the Whale Hunting podcast, you can join them as they share what’s got them talking this week, from the headlines to underworld gossip.…

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Episodes

Dec 4, 2023

How did the Ghetto Superstar rapper Pras Michel become locked in an international financial fraud case — and did his AI-loving lawyer stitch him up? In the first episode of…

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Dec 7, 2023

This week on Whale Hunting, Tom Wright is joined by Simon Willis, journalist and host of new podcast, The Professor. The series unravels the story of William Veres, an art…

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Dec 13, 2023

This week on Whale Hunting, Tom Wright and Bradley Hope dive into the life and works of legendary spy novelist John le Carré. After le Carré’s death in 2020, a…

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Dec 20, 2023

This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley Hope is joined by Alex Finley, former CIA operations officer and author of the Victor Caro book series. While researching her third book, Victor…

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Jan 3, 2024

It’s been more than nine months since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was wrongfully detained on espionage charges. Just a few weeks ago, Putin rejected an American offer for…

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Jan 10, 2024

How can journalists, activists, dissidents and even lawyers and business leaders protect themselves from the threat of private surveillance? That’s the question we’re looking to answer this week on Whale…

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Jan 17, 2024

Leonard Francis executed a naval corruption scheme like no other – plying admirals and officers with booze, parties and prostitutes in return for lucrative navy contracts. His story involves sexual…

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Jan 24, 2024

If there’s one thing dictators and autocrats hate, it’s transparency. If they got it their way, they’d step onto private jets and vanish from all oversight. Luckily, people like Emmanuel…

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Jan 31, 2024

Yaroslav Trofimov is a seasoned war correspondent whose career spans the tumultuous events of the early 21st century, from Iraq to Afghanistan and the frontlines in Ukraine. This week on…

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Feb 7, 2024

When the Sheik of Dubai’s daughters tried to escape their father, world powers turned a blind eye. But investigative reporter Heidi Blake was determined to document their plight. Writing for…

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Feb 14, 2024

The man at the heart of the German Wirecard scandal, Jan Marsalek was once believed to be a straightforward fraudster. Recent reporting, however, has revealed him as a potential Russian…

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Feb 21, 2024

Picture the scene: you’re luxury glamping in the Saudi desert, the darkening sky already awash with stars above you. You’re about to enjoy all the splendour of an evening amongst…

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Feb 28, 2024

How fast can you set up a shell company? We bet Jason Sharman can do it quicker. A Cambridge academic, author, and an expert witness, Professor Sharman is also a…

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Mar 6, 2024

Most of the time, drug wars happen in the shadows, in underworld deaths and disappearances. But when journalists and lawyers start getting gunned down on the streets of Amsterdam, and…

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Mar 13, 2024

Hollywood movies would have you believe Interpol is something like the world’s police force. The reality is quite different. This week on Whale Hunting, host Bradley Hope talks to Jane…

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Mar 20, 2024

Imagine a digital virus that could destroy your computer. Not crash its system, but actually wreck the physical hardware – say, melt the motherboard or burn up the hard drive….

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Mar 27, 2024

We all know that advertisers are snapping up our digital data: what we buy, the websites we visit, the content we consume – even where we are at any given…

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Apr 3, 2024

Lewis A. Kaplan has been a district court judge for almost 30 years, but even he was staggered by the audacity of Sam Bankman-Fried. “When he wasn’t outright lying, he…

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Apr 10, 2024

If your loved one was kidnapped by a terror group like ISIS, your first instinct might be to scream for help from the rooftops. This, Daniel Levin says, would not…

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Apr 17, 2024

The consequences of Jho Low’s colossal fraud continue to be felt on several continents. In Malaysia, the trial of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has entered its fifth year,…

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May 8, 2024

We’re back and we’re kicking off season two with a bang! This week on Whale Hunting, host Tom Wright is joined by Jane Perlez, long-time Beijing bureau chief for The…

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May 15, 2024

Once upon a time, in a land far away, corporate interests didn’t rule the political roost. It’s hard to imagine today, when Big Oil, Big Tech and Big Finance (among…

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May 22, 2024

Many journalists have that one story they just can’t let drop. For Nicky Woolf, it was this one. In December 2014, at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, horror…

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May 29, 2024

Like night needs day, criminals have always needed money launderers. But how is the digital revolution changing the laundering business? This week on Whale Hunting, host Bradley Hope speaks to…

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Jun 5, 2024

Gangsters of the past may have headed to their nearest payphone to make risky calls, but modern day criminals have a much more convenient option: encrypted cellphones. The question is,…

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Jun 12, 2024

Think of your favorite mafia movie or narco show. Then think of its female characters. How many of them fall into the following categories? 1) long suffering wife 2) hot…

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Jun 19, 2024

Dr Ruja Ignatova has been on the run since 2017 after orchestrating one of the biggest scams in history. This week on Whale Hunting, Bradley chats to Jamie Bartlett, the…

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Jun 26, 2024

This week on Whale Hunting, we’re bringing you a special episode from Project Brazen’s archives that asks: How did an Ivy League activist become a global fugitive? Whale Hunting host…

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Jul 3, 2024

In 2013, US-based Smithfield Foods – the world’s largest pork producer – was bought by a Chinese firm for nearly $5 billion. But was it just a run-of-the-mill acquisition for…

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Jul 10, 2024

It’s a precarious time for the Russian elite. Caught up in the invasion of Ukraine and an immovable dictator, the noblesse russe have to tip-toe through economic and political conflict…

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Jul 17, 2024

No nation faced more devastating consequences in the aftermath of 9/11 than Afghanistan. At least, that’s what Sune Rasmussen observed in his six years living and reporting from the country…

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Jul 24, 2024

“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that […] he is a kind of confidence man, preying on…

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Jul 31, 2024

In the US, all American citizens have the constitutional right to lobby their representatives in Washington DC. It’s a right that has come in handy over the years as foreign…

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Aug 7, 2024

In recent years, Philipp Grüll has spent almost all his time reporting on arms deals. He’s considered something of a specialist, so when his colleague Frederik Obermaier approached him with…

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Aug 14, 2024

A furious letter from a smartly-named law firm is almost par for the course for journalists on the crime and corruption beat. From oligarchs and dictators to badly behaved billionaires,…

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Sep 4, 2024

You’ve probably heard of blood diamonds, but what about blood antiquities? Today, most trappings of wealth – like cash, diamonds or gold – are subject to stringent regulation. But not…

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Sep 11, 2024

On Monday, Malaysia’s High Court heard how a staggering $2.4 million made its way from the coffers of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, into the bank accounts of Kim…

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Sep 18, 2024

When the Taliban were first toppled in 2001, there was hope among some Afghans that it could mark the start of a new Afghanistan. President Bush promised the US would…

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Sep 25, 2024

For the last five years, Popular Front has been shaking up the way many of us view reporting from conflict zones. It gives its followers an up-close-and-personal view, going inside…

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Oct 2, 2024

When journalist Gareth Gore began investigating the collapse of Spain’s Banco Popular in 2017, he expected a predictable tale of bad investments and toxic loans. Instead, it led him to…

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Oct 9, 2024

Imagine a world where there are two maps. The regular one that everyone sees — one divided by land borders and nation states. The other, a hidden globe, made up…

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Oct 16, 2024

For a few days in the early 2000s, Masayoshi Son — nicknamed Masa — was the richest man in the world. A few days later, it all came tumbling down….

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Oct 23, 2024

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 Putin’s attacks, and…

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Oct 30, 2024

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…

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Nov 6, 2024

Honeypot operations are one of the oldest tricks in the espionage playbook — get access to sensitive information through a wily femme fatale. Scandinavian banking giant Swedbank was recently the…

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Nov 13, 2024

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…

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Nov 20, 2024

Conventional warfare no longer exists. Drones, offensive hacking techniques and even sonic weaponry is upending how conflict is waged — and the recent Israeli intelligence operation to plant explosives in…

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Nov 27, 2024

Iran’s war with Israel and the U.S. has been waged through numerous proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen — but more recently, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or…

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Dec 4, 2024

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…

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