Whale Hunting

Apr 3, 2024

Sam Bankman-Fried: FTX, Regrets, and a 25 year prison sentence

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 was evasive, hairsplitting, dodging questions,” Kaplan said when he handed the FTX fraudster a 25 year prison sentence last week. Zeke Faux, a reporter for Bloomberg, was there to watch the sentencing. He's met SBF a few times – before and after his multi-billion dollar scam came crashing down. This week on Whale Hunting, host Tom Wright chats to Zeke about Kaplan's fury, how SBF…

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Episodes

Bad Lawyers: 1MDB, Pras Michel, and Artificial [Un]intelligence

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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Dirty Pictures: The Mafia, Stolen Art, and Mediocre Seascapes

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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Spy Fiction: Lies, Life Writing, and John le Carré

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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Risky Assets: Spooks, Yachts, and Social Games

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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Evan Gershkovich: The US reporter held in Putin’s Russia

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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Private Surveillance: Are you being watched?

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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Fat Leonard: Ports, Pay Offs, and a Prisoner Swap

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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Flying Low: Data, Dictators, and Private Planes

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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Fighting Talk: Russia, Resilience, and Reporting War

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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Dark Dubai: Sheiks, Escapes and Runaway Princesses

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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Jan Marsalek: Wirecard, Lies and Bulgarian Spies

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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Making Movies: Johnny Depp, MBS, and a Blockbuster Bromance

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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Treasure Islands: Secrecy, Shell Companies, and Sunny Tax Havens

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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Ridouan Taghi: Drugs, Death, and a Mega Trial

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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Red Alert: Interpol, Autocrats, and a Leadership Race

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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Cyber Crimes: Stuxnet, Sabotage and Digital Warfare

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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Bumper Harvests: Data, Privacy, and State Surveillance

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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Sam Bankman-Fried: FTX, Regrets, and a 25 year prison sentence

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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Covert Diplomacy: Democracy, Death Threats and Hostage Negotiations

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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1MDB Updates: Jho Low, a Swiss Trial and Testimony in Malaysia

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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China and the US: Nukes, Tech and Hot Competition

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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K Street: How to Buy Friends and Influence People

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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Fur and Loathing: Trolls, Terrorism, and Chlorine Gas

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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Old Crimes, New Tech: Mixers, Crypto and Dirty Money

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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FBI Calling: Organized Crime, Encrypted Phones and Anom

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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Girl Bosses: Cartels, Narcas and Untold Stories

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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Dark Web, MLMs, and a Missing Cryptoqueen

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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The Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime

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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The Grab: Food Wars, Water Crises and China’s Plan

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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Sudden Russian Death Syndrome

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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Betrayal, Insurgency, and Understanding Afghanistan

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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Are journalists con artists?

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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How do kleptocrats and dictators launder their reputation in the US?

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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Who is Li Fangwei, the Chinese phantom?

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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Why is London the libel capital of the world?

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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