Scalps...

In the realm of independent investigative journalism, very few compare with this site's track record. It sounds odious, but how many can claim that investigations published over the years have ended up with actual arrests, indictments, seizures, extraditions, bankruptcies, and criminal probes in various jurisdictions? This site can. It is the only relevant mark, the sole valid vindication for what we do here.

Early this decade we collaborated with Paraguay's largest newspaper in a multi million dollar swindle carried out by Marcelo Barone, one of those typical "Venezuelan entrepreneurs" whose model is to steal, misappropriate, and then pretend to have extraordinary business acumen. Our investigation earned some plaudits, as one of the best in Latin America. But the best validation of our work came when Marcelo Barone and partner-in-crime Elisabel Vázquez were arrested, in London, thanks in great part to information we published and provided to Paraguayan prosecutors.

Early this decade, our interest was piqued by Derwick Associates. It remains this site's largest body of work. We exposed money laundering through real estate purchases, international corrupt practices, outright criminality, impossible-to-justify associations, connections at the highest level of political power in different countries, we facilitated delivery of copious amounts of incriminating evidence to different probing authorities. At first, we were dismissed, as tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists. Today, Francisco Convit is a Department of Justice-wanted fugitive. Alejandro Betancourt is part of same probe, and of others, as co-conspirator. Same applies to Orlando Alvarado, Derwick's CFO. Nervis Villalobos, Derwick's go-to provider of all manner of corrupt procurement contracts, was arrested in Spain, dozens of his properties seized. Javier Alvarado, another associate of Derwick was arrested in Spain in connection to money laudering and corruption. Luis Carlos de Leon, yet another thug in the Derwick chain, was extradited from Spain to the U.S., and Rafael Ramirez, the architect in chief of all this web, is being chased all over the place. It is only a question of time till he becomes another scalp.

We have lost count of all the aspects about this criminal syndicate we have broke over the years. As we love to say: chronology can not be beaten. We exposed FusionGPS and its connections to Derwick years before anyone had heard of Glenn Simpson, Peter Fritsch and Tom Catan. We exposed its involvement in multi billion dollar money laundering years before anyone else had written a single word about it. We exposed Derwick's connection to Gazprombank and its association with Russia's FSB, which, to this day, remains a topic that only this site has covered.

This site revealed Alex Saab's corruption racket years before anyone had heard of him. Like in the case of Derwick, our seminal investigations are the basis of a DoJ's criminal indicment. Saab is now wanted by American justice and Italy's Guardia di Finanza. Some of his assets in Rome were seized recently.

Luis and Ignacio Oberto Anselmi were unknown characters to law enforcement until we started banging on about their corrupt schemes. The Oberto Anselmis have taken money laundering to new heights, only surpassed by Danilo Diazgranados, Victor Vargas, Juan Carlos Escotet, the Gill brothers... all connected somewhat to Derwick and all exposed here.

Till very recently, Victor Vargas was meant to be a banker. Authorities in different jurisdictions have now established that he is little more than a thieving fraudster. The debacle of his "banking group" is going to touch interests as far removed as France's "royalty".

There's a thread that binds most international corruption scandals and we have studied it meticulously. David Osio, Moris Beracha, Armando "coco" Capriles, Miguel Angel Capriles Lopez, Rafael Ramirez, Baldo Sanso, the Neri Bonillas, EFG Bank, Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique, Helsinge, Francisco Morillo, Arturo Fasana, Baltazar Garzon, Dominic de Villepin, Rudy Giuliani, Jon Sale, Abbe Lowell, Adam Kaufmann, Brian Ballard, Anthony Scaramucci, Al Cardenas, David Boies, Pablo Iglesias, Bruno Magras, Henry Ramos Allup, Juan Guaido, PDVSA, Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Lukoil, Odebrecht, Robert Hanson, Patrick Teroerde, Samark Lopez, Oswaldo Cisneros, Francisco D'Agostino, Antonio Mugica, Wilmer Ruperti, Raul Gorrin, Torino Capital... the list of members of Venezuela's Grand Theft is almost endless, though this site, within the context of investigative reporting related to Venezuela, has claimed more scalps in the last 10 years than the competition combined.

As a new decade begins, we will keep our efforts. As fake news, and fake "exclusives" keep popping up, this site will carry on shedding a light upon the largest corruption scandal the world has never heard of, specially as it enters its second phase: privatisation of Venezuela's assets Russian style.