Still standing!

Really working the loopholes here: "Full-time government appointees cannot hold outside jobs and must file financial disclosure forms, rules that don’t apply to special, temporary employees." news.bgov.com/bloomberg-go...

Pentagon Investment Arm Director Joined Firm With Defense Ties

Days after being named to run a new Pentagon investment fund, former Cerberus Capital Management executive George Kollitides took up to $1 million in stock and a seat on the board of a Caribbean shell...

news.bgov.com

i miss the 1990s

🔴 New from ACDC 🔴 Lobbying for alleged criminals and corrupt politicians, and people under sanctions, is increasing in Washington. We dove into FARA filings by lobbyists working for natural persons, and found alarming attempts to undo anti-corruption enforcement by previous administrations.

Thanks to Meghna Chakrabarti and the @wbur.org On Point team for having me on yesterday to talk about @acdatacollective.bsky.social's work on insider trading risks on Polymarket Another example of how access to government has become a huge source of profit... www.wbur.org/onpoint/2026...

How prediction markets have found their way into American politics

A Google engineer and member of special forces have been arrested for placing illegal bets on prediction markets. And these are just examples of the insider trading that may shape more than the countr...

wbur.org

Two Polymarket users made thousands of $ betting on the June 2025 US strikes on Iran. Trading patterns show they were very confident in the outcome. Could they be military insiders? @papertrailmedia.de & @derstandard.at dive into data from our earlier report. acdatacollective.org/work/profiti...

Frederik Obermaier@frederikobermaier.com · 2mo ago

Profit mit dem Krieg: Mit hochriskanten Wetten auf Kriege verdienen Nutzer auf der Plattform Polymarket viel Geld. @papertrailmedia.de @derstandard.at @acdatacollective.bsky.social Recherchen zeigen Muster, die auf möglichen Insiderhandel hindeuten www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

I’ll be speaking about our work at ACDC (@acdatacollective.bsky.social) tomorrow at the Oslo Freedom Forum!

Anti-Corruption Data Collective@acdatacollective.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How Dictators Use Corruption To Destroy Democracy (and Get Insanely Rich in the Process) @oslofreedomforum.com, tomorrow 14:15 - 15:15 Featuring: ACDC's @szakonyi.bsky.social with @ishaantharoor.bsky.social, Elsa Peraldi and Vadim Kleiner. oslofreedomforum.com/event/oslo-f...

Wash trading or money laundering? We worked with @irishtimes.com to try to make sense of the $1m bet on a Dublin byelection involving a notorious veteran criminal. www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

Why have international traders bet $1m on the Dublin Central byelection?

Almost $500,000 alone has been wagered on Gerry Hutch’s chances of becoming a TD or not

irishtimes.com

Great to hear this @acdatacollective.bsky.social research into insider trading on prediction markets being mentioned by @kevinroose.com and @caseynewton.bsky.social on the Hard Fork podcast from @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/p...

Can the U.S. Rein in Prediction Markets? + Joanna Stern on Her Year of A.I. Experiments + Our Producer Goes to Attention School

nytimes.com

Anti-Corruption Data Collective@acdatacollective.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Prediction market or corruption market? We analysed Polymarket data to test whether reports of insider trading on political events are isolated cases or signs of a systemic risk. 🧵 acdatacollective.org/work/insider...

Thank you for helping me plan this, Claude!

Prediction market or corruption market? We analysed Polymarket data to test whether reports of insider trading on political events are isolated cases or signs of a systemic risk. 🧵 acdatacollective.org/work/insider...

Is it a good thing for the world that people can now secretly monetize their access to classified information on the timing and success of military strikes www.ft.com/content/989d...

Our new research at @acdatacollective.bsky.social !

FT Edit@ftedit.ft.com · 3mo ago

Long-shot bets on military action made on Polymarket have a win-rate almost four times higher than the platform average, according to new research, raising fears that wagers placed by insiders could reveal classified information. Read the full story on #FTEdit 👉 ft.trib.al/Zqokt5y

Sounds like a loud call to action for whistleblowers…

Phil Lewis@phillewis.bsky.social · 4mo ago

“A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers”

🏘️ A data architecture built by ACDC was the starting point for a series of investigations into Nigerian PEP's U.S. real estate holdings by @pplaaf.bsky.social. 🎯 The stories keep coming, and they're making an impact.

1/ #Nigeria🇳🇬: A joint investigation by @pplaaf.bsky.social, @occrp.org, & @premiumtimesng.bsky.social reveals how family members of Prof. 'Dibu' Ojerinde filed to transfer two properties that they bought in the US, shortly before his Nigerian and Ghanaian assets were subject to a forfeiture notice.

A new survey by Medián, Hungary's most reliable pollster gives a 23-pt edge to the opposition Tisza over Fidesz. Party leader Péter Magyar has recently started talking about what Tisza would do with a 2/3 supermajority which is within their reach if these numbers are accurate 444.hu/2026/03/25/a...

Months of investigative work… for Banksy’s identity. Not corruption, not war crimes - Banksy. What a waste.

Reuters@reuters.com · 5mo ago

The search for Banksy began in war-ravaged Ukraine and took Reuters to New York and London, uncovering details about the tactics Banksy used to remain masked reut.rs/4rynJr0

Hot damn! We won an award. Bartelme and Smith, along with John Dell’Osso from the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa, won the A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism for “Power and Polo.”

Post and Courier wins President's Cup for Excellence, 91 awards from SC Press Association

The Post and Courier wins 91 awards from S.C. Press Association, including Journalist of the Year, Judson Chapman Award and President's Cup for Excellence.

postandcourier.com

We recently helped our member @papertrailmedia.de report on a notorious US oligarch's acquisition of critical energy infrastructure in Germany.

Overdue use of American Oligarch, hitherto reserved for use “over there”

Anti-Corruption Data Collective@acdatacollective.bsky.social · 6mo ago

We recently helped our member @papertrailmedia.de report on a notorious US oligarch's acquisition of critical energy infrastructure in Germany.

Great point here by @stephenabbottpugh.bsky.social The EU is taking important steps toward transparency in real estate ownership by overseas entities. But making that data usable for tracing dirty money across borders needs a common data standard. stephenabbottpugh.medium.com/standardisin...

Standardising ownership data on foreign companies and trusts buying real estate in the European…

Foreign companies from high-risk jurisdictions and all foreign trusts which have purchased real estate in the European Union since 2014…

stephenabbottpugh.medium.com

This story we helped DW uncover last week highlights just one of many contradictions in the nascent deep sea mining industry. From bluewashing to regulation with a USA-sized gap, the risk of corporate capture that threatens the global environment run deep. acdatacollective.org/work/deep-se...

Anti-Corruption Data Collective@acdatacollective.bsky.social · 6mo ago

"Like refusing to finance an oil drilling site but still buying shares in the drilling company." Over 20 financial institutions have pledged not to finance deep sea mining, but several of the same banks invest in companies preparing to mine the seabed for minerals. 🤔 www.dw.com/en/the-hidde...

📣 Online seminar Join us 2pm to 3pm (GMT) tomorrow for a #GIACE seminar on using leaked and sensitive data to research illicit finance with @szakonyi.bsky.social and Tom Mayne, chaired by @lizdavidbarrett.bsky.social. Held in collaboration with the Illicit Finance Data Lab. Register now 👇

The promise and perils of using leaked and sensitive data to research Illicit Finance

bit.ly

Very happy to have had the chance to present our work (w. @mattcollin.bsky.social & @szakonyi.bsky.social) on the effects of the Economic Crime Bill and its beneficial ownership transparency on secretive real estate ownership in the UK.

International Tax Observatory@taxobservatory.bsky.social · 6mo ago

How effective are transparency innovations in curbing offshore tax evasion? We’re spending the next two days examining the latest evidence on illicit financial flows. 🎙️ Opening remarks by @gabrielzucman.bsky.social. Can’t make it? Catch the full recording on our YouTube later this week!

🧵 New version of our paper (@bcegerod.bsky.social) is finally online: "How Many is Enough? Sample Size in Staggered Difference-in-Differences Designs" We show that even well-identified DiD studies are often underpowered; sample sizes needed are surprisingly large Paper: osf.io/preprints/os... 1/6

"Like refusing to finance an oil drilling site but still buying shares in the drilling company." Over 20 financial institutions have pledged not to finance deep sea mining, but several of the same banks invest in companies preparing to mine the seabed for minerals. 🤔 www.dw.com/en/the-hidde...

The hidden money behind deep-sea mining

A DW investigation traces the hidden financial web behind deep-sea mining — an industry scientists say remains poorly understood, yet capable of causing irreversible harm to oceans worldwide.

dw.com

Amid the furore over US claims to Greenland, a close Trump ally has quietly gained control over a significant part of Germany’s energy infrastructure, including a pipeline company supplying military airfields.

paper trail media@papertrailmedia.de · 6mo ago

Ausgerechnet zum Höhepunkt der Trumpschen Grönland-Krise hat das Bundeswirtschaftsministerium grünes Licht für eine brisante Übernahme gegeben: Ein Trump-Buddy übernimmt die Kontrolle über wichtige Teile der deutschen Energieinfrastruktur #Tanquid www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft...

On 5 February join @szakonyi.bsky.social @lizdavidbarrett.bsky.social & Tom Mayne for a deep dive into the potential for leaked data to underpin illicit finance research. David will present a new ACDC study into the effectiveness of de-risking as an AML tool, based on data from the #CongoHoldUp.

Recently published in @itaxjournal.bsky.social "Safely opening Pandora’s box: a guide for researchers working with leaked data" by Annette Alstadsæter, Matthew Collin ( @mattcollin.bsky.social ) & Andreas Økland (@andokl.bsky.social) Available at: rdcu.be/eZfQl