George Katz's Avatar

George Katz

@georgekatz.bsky.social

Investigations and Training @bellingcat.com

5,680 Followers  |  116 Following  |  16 Posts  |  Joined: 10.07.2023  |  1.8835

Latest posts by georgekatz.bsky.social on Bluesky

Our Discord stage talk where Arthur Brand @artdetective.bsky.social will discuss some of his fascinating art recoveries is happening tomorrow. No excuses - you have to be there

30.07.2025 13:16 β€” πŸ‘ 40    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Illustration by Ann Kiernan for Bellingcat

Illustration by Ann Kiernan for Bellingcat

We’re back with a new series of open source challenges! Bellingcat researcher @oldpete45.bsky.social created five exercises that allow you to uncover some dark secrets buried in time. Welcome to a world of forgotten files, and (confusing) historic maps! ➑️ challenge.bellingcat.com

07.07.2025 12:56 β€” πŸ‘ 108    πŸ” 35    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
Unmasking MrDeepFakes: Canadian Pharmacist Linked to World’s Most Notorious Deepfake Porn Site | Bellingcat Get more from Bellingcat on Patreon

In the latest Bellingchat Premium episode we talk about how we investigated MrDeepfakes, current state of non-consensual AI deepfakes pornography and what is coming up next

www.patreon.com/posts/131814...

19.06.2025 12:35 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Day 2 art crime challenge is on!

03.06.2025 12:07 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
ARCA – Association for Research into Crimes against Art – An interdisciplinary think tank and research organization examining contemporary issues in art crime.

These challenges were created by The Association for Research into Crimes against Art @arca-artcrime.bsky.social, a research organisation dedicated to the study of art crime and promotes the protection of cultural heritage. Check out their work here: www.artcrimeresearch.org

02.06.2025 12:25 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

This week we’re showing you what investigating art crimes takes. Test your skills and learn some new ones with our fascinating challenges!

My big thanks to @sauterne.bsky.social, @merelzoet.bsky.social and @galen.reich.me.uk

02.06.2025 12:46 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

My latest. I heard about this growing up and spent the last few years seeing what FOIAs, interviews, and archives can tell us. It’s a glimpse into the murky, ruthless underworld of 1970s Texas. Grateful for my brilliant editors @gycsak.bsky.social @liseolsen.bsky.social @beaudonelly.bsky.social

27.05.2025 21:20 β€” πŸ‘ 97    πŸ” 19    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 2

CBC's visual investigation unit, in partnership with @bellingcat.com, @tjekdet.dk , and @politiken.dk revealed for the first time who the key person behind it is.

A hospital pharmacist from Canada β€” David Do.

09.05.2025 21:44 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
He's the key person behind the most notorious deepfake porn site in the world. And he's Canadian | CBC News A joint international investigation by CBC News, Bellingcat and Danish outlets Politiken and Tjekdet has linked a Canadian pharmacist to one of the biggest website in the world for non-consensual, AI-...

INVESTIGATION: With Bellingcat, Politiken, and Tjekdet, our team identified the person behind MrDeepFakesβ€”the largest non-consensual deepfake porn site that shut down after our reporting.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

09.05.2025 12:21 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

We did it before, we’re doing it now, and we’ll do it again. Big thanks to @beaudonelly.bsky.social @conplnk.bsky.social @koltai.bsky.social @charleymaher.bsky.social @merelzoet.bsky.social @galen.reich.me.uk

07.05.2025 07:37 β€” πŸ‘ 32    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The Life and Death of Leonardo Patterson: A Dealer in Stolen History "A blog about art crimes, illicit trafficking, forgery, art theft and cultural heritage protection."

The Life and Death of Antiquities Trafficker Leonardo Patterson: A Dealer in Stolen History

art-crime.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-...

01.04.2025 12:10 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Auto Archiver, our free in-house archiving tool, just got a major update. It archives social media posts, videos, images, and webpages in a secure and *verifiable* way and is very easy to use.

31.03.2025 16:40 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Join the Bellingcat Discord Server! Come hang out with open source research enthusiasts, share knowledge and experiences, and learn lots! | 34512 members

Art crime office hours today (19/03) at 6 pm CET / 1pm ET - come along discord.gg/MTRGXpCZ?eve...

19.03.2025 00:09 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Tomorrow in De Telegraaf one of the craziest international art thefts I have ever solved. A story about a fantastic painting and a murder. A story worthy of a Spy novel.

02.03.2025 17:55 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

New from me!
This article dives into a sketchy non-profit (so they claim) that Clothoff is supposedly donating money to.

Lots of dodging of questions, and no evidence to suggest that they exist beyond a website.

21.02.2025 16:09 β€” πŸ‘ 117    πŸ” 34    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Copyfish 🐟 Free OCR Software - Chrome Web Store Copy, paste and translate text from any image, video or PDF.

A handy chrome ext to capture, recognise, and copy in-browser text in many languages with an option to send it straight to google translate or deepL. chromewebstore.google.com/detail/eenjd...

21.02.2025 12:39 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Join our first Discord #artcrime office hours on 19/02 at 5pm UK!

Link: discord.gg/kNCJtNhrHw

Thanks to @sauterne.bsky.social for accepting our invitation to join us. You can listen to the Stage Talk with Lynda on the topic here: rss.com/podcasts/bel...

13.02.2025 12:48 β€” πŸ‘ 26    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
Post image

Apple users can enjoy it too

10.02.2025 10:16 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

Happy to have contributed to this piece with our fantastic Financial Investigations Team

28.01.2025 17:34 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Chinese Suppliers Behind Ads Deadly For Nitazenes Targeting Europe Investigation finds more than 1,000 online ads for nitazenes, including from Chinese companies, and links European shipments of the deadly drugs to China.

Adverts selling an opioid up to 500 times stronger than heroin are all over the internet, from social media platforms to trade sites. Bellingcat and partner Postimees investigate how this deadly drug is infiltrating Europe: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/01...

20.01.2025 13:18 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 33    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2

In case you missed it, we got you

19.01.2025 20:56 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Join us tomorrow, it’ll be fun

15.01.2025 18:27 β€” πŸ‘ 60    πŸ” 11    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Join the Bellingcat Discord Server! Come hang out with open source research enthusiasts, share knowledge and experiences, and learn lots! | 32605 members

🎨 On 16/01/25 ARCA's CEO Lynda Albertson @sauterne.bsky.social will be talking about investigating art crimes. Join our very first Discord Stage Talk of 2025 to learn more about the fascinating world of art crimes! Register here: discord.gg/8WhQpZ8B?event=1318250313257324554 #ArtCrime

16.12.2024 18:09 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativit... and one day we’ll find this beauty

11.12.2024 19:04 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

First stage talk speaker & channel activities for our new #artcrime channel on Discord coming up soon! πŸ–ΌοΈπŸ” Explore, discuss and use your skills to untangle fascinating cases of art theft, laundering, looting, trafficking of cultural heritage and more! Join here: discord.gg/5CgmKVG3

11.12.2024 19:01 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

@georgekatz is following 20 prominent accounts