Apr 16, 2025
Behind closed doors, Kazakhstan challenges decades-old deal with $160 billion claim against Big Oil
A secret ruling hints at the huge stakes in the arbitration case, which is expected to stretch until 2028.
Extractive industries
Nov 22, 2024
Putin’s pipeline: How the Kremlin outmaneuvered Western oil companies to wrest control of vast flows of Kazakhstan’s crude
Chevron and partners prioritized profits, enabling runaway costs and ballooning budgets worth billions as Russia deployed strong-arm tactics and steered contracts to cronies.
Nov 22, 2024
The lost village: Western oil companies enriched Kazakhstan’s power brokers — and left a community in ruins
Ten years ago a mysterious health crisis ushered in the end of Berezovka. Former residents are still grappling with chronic illness and broken promises.
Nov 22, 2024
Oil giants ignored red flags, enriched elite for Kazakhstan pipe dream
Hundreds of millions in payments were made to a firm co-owned by Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of the resource-rich nation’s longtime ruler.
Nov 22, 2024
WATCH: Everything you need to know about Caspian Cabals
An overview of ICIJ's latest global investigation.
Nov 22, 2024
Inside Big Oil’s war against transparency
For a decade, the industry fought bitterly against a basic anti-corruption rule to report their payments to foreign governments.
Nov 22, 2024
About the Caspian Cabals investigation
Caspian Cabals exposes how Western companies desperate for new oil reserves catered to Russian power, enriching Putin cronies and Kazakh elites and ignoring corruption risks to keep the oil moving.
Mar 16, 2021
‘Dirty Gold’ chases ‘three amigos’ from Miami to Peru and beyond
A new book explores a multibillion-dollar money laundering conspiracy by gold traders and the human side of the illegal mining economy.
Mar 10, 2021
US sanctions mining magnate accused of corruption in the Congo, reversing Trump-era move
Dan Gertler was first frozen out of the U.S. financial system in 2017 after Paradise Papers exposed how he helped secure lucrative mining rights for commodities giant Glencore.
Sep 21, 2020
US Treasury Department abandoned major money laundering case against Dubai gold company
The Kaloti probe offers rare insight into the illicit gold trade.
Sep 08, 2015
How Africa’s journalists united for a pioneering collaboration
Local reporters spent months unearthing court records and hushed-up government audits to reveal the impact of mining across the continent.
Apr 11, 2014
No net, no say for online mining survey with surprising results
A new World Bank survey has surprised experts by showing strong public support for the extractive industries in resource-rich nations, but its methodology has come under question.