The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Top lawyer’s prosecution for ‘blackmail threat’ against journalist… TBIJ and others challenged the decision to hold the disciplinary case in private as an affront to open justice

We joined others in challenging the decision to hold, behind closed doors, proceedings against a lawyer accused of a 'blackmail threat' against a journalist

But yesterday, our coalition’s lawyer was denied the chance to argue that challenge

Thousands of rogue bosses get away with not paying tribunal awards The government scheme ‘enforcing’ money owed to workers has been unsuccessful in a staggering three-quarters of cases

A recent TBIJ investigation found that thousands of people who have won cases against their employers have not been paid what they are owed, even after the government intervened

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George Madgwick: Portsmouth councillor failed to pay tribunal awards George Madgwick has multiple tribunal rulings against him for unpaid wages

In total, two of Madgwick’s businesses have been ordered to pay £4,386 to three former employees for breaching employment law

Reform’s leading councillor in Portsmouth, George Madgwick recently argued that young people are overpaid – backing Nigel Farage’s call to reduce the minimum wage

But what he didn’t mention is that several tribunals found that some of his own companies have failed to pay wages and holiday pay

How racist AI Facebook posts made one Sri Lankan influencer rich The content creator made his fortune from racist Facebook groups aimed at Brits; now he’s sharing his formula

For our latest investigation, we dug into Sri Lanka's 'Facebook ads king'

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That AI-generated stop the boats meme you saw on Facebook?

It might have been produced by an industrial content farm in Sri Lanka

SLC Agricola: Cotton grower linked to land invasions SLC Agrícola is pushing its green image at Cop30 climate talks while growing cotton on a farm accused of land grabs

NEW: Cotton used by Nike and Adidas can be traced back to a company using a farm straddling disputed land in Brazil

That very same company – SLC Agricola – has been promoting its green credentials at Cop30 ...

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

How racist AI Facebook posts made one Sri Lankan influencer rich The content creator made his fortune from racist Facebook groups aimed at Brits; now he’s sharing his formula

Islamophobic and racist AI-generated posts aimed at Brits helped make one Sri Lankan influencer rich – and now he’s sharing his formula

‘A crisis of colossal scale’: the illegal gold rush tearing Ethiopia… As gold prices skyrocket, Chinese and western companies are working side by side to exploit a region ravaged by civil war

None of the people pictured in these photos feature in this story

Read the full investigation ⬇️

Our reporters travelled across the country to some of Tigray’s most remote corners, conducting more than 200 interviews

But the stakes have been high: journalists investigating this subject have been detained and threatened with violence

📸 Claire Wilmot for TBIJ

For over a year, we’ve been investigating claims of illicit gold mining

Since the end of the civil war, shady foreign investors and local military figures have joined forces – while unregulated extraction ruins the land and poisons local populations

📸 Erberto Zani via Alamy

As gold prices skyrocket, Chinese and western companies are working side by side to exploit a region ravaged by civil war

Welcome to the illegal gold rush tearing Ethiopia apart

📸 Erberto Zani via Alamy

When approached by our reporter, Cornwall council described the ad for the contract as a “questionnaire”

Regulators intervened after the local authority was accused of normalising illegal placements – the contract has since been withdrawn

Cornwall council offered suppliers £6m to staff illegal children’s… Regulators intervene after UK local authority accused of normalising unlawful placements

perating a children’s home that is not registered with Ofsted is a criminal offence

Yet, Cornwall Council offered suppliers £6 million to provide “staffing for unregistered places” across the county – and advertised the contract on a government website

Why major unions refuse to organise seasonal farm workers Farm workers go on unofficial strikes as their temporary visas create barriers to union membership

So why is it that major unions refuse to organise seasonal farm workers? 👇

But without any support from charities or unions, their efforts soon fizzled out

Some returned to Latin America, others ended up in London, homeless and with little money in their pockets…

Julia came to the UK to work on a farm after being promised she would earn £500 per week picking fruit –in her first fortnight, she was paid £150

The low pay and other poor working conditions pushed her and 90 colleagues to go on strike, the first industrial action of its kind

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Can Brazil's climate conference turn the tide?. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. You may have seen that there’s a massive climate summit taking place in the Amazon: Cop30. We’re now ten years on from the Paris Agreement, a rare moment of global unity when countries came together t...

Limited seats – sign up for free here

Our environment team has been working hard to investigate some of the worst polluters and the impact of the climate crisis on local communities

Join us this Thursday to hear from TBIJ reporters about some of our recent Cop30 investigations – and bring your questions! 🌍

DRC's mangroves park damaged by logging, smuggling and violence Kim Rebholz tried to end illegal logging, smuggling and pollution in DRC's mangroves park, one of the world's most important forests

What’s the price for protecting the world’s best hope against climate change?

For Kim Rebholz, who was hired to monitor the DRC’s rainforest, it was his family’s safety

Today we’re exposing the environmental crimes he witnessed – which he says go back to the former president

QR code parking scam linked to global crime network Sprawling fraud operation took £50m a year while payment giant Worldline looked the other way

Full investigation 🔗

Police arrest 18 in anti-fraud operation linked to ‘quishing’ scam Agencies across Europe and the UK raided dozens of addresses in a massive coordinated investigation

German prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they had dismantled three large fraud and money-laundering networks that they said had systematically abused online payment systems

Read more 👇

Police forces have arrested 18 people and searched locations across the world in a massive investigation into global scam networks – including one we exposed recently

🚨 We are looking for an experienced editor to lead our Enablers team on a fixed-term maternity cover contract

Salary: £53,100 to £59,000 per annum depending on experience
Contract: Fixed term maternity cover, full time, 11 months
Location: London (hybrid)
Deadline: Wednesday 26th November

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Can Brazil's climate conference turn the tide?. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. You may have seen that there’s a massive climate summit taking place in the Amazon: Cop30. We’re now ten years on from the Paris Agreement, a rare moment of global unity when countries came together t...

You’ll have a chance to ask us your questions – so don’t miss out!

Sign up here 🔗 us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

For the past few months, our environment team has been investigating some of the worst polluters and impacts of the climate crisis on communities

Join us on Thursday (November 13) at 6pm on Zoom to hear all the behind-the-scenes stories from the team

This year’s Cop30 is starting next week – it's an important opportunity for us to hold our governments accountable

But is it all just a talking shop or will it actually make a difference?

A Freedom of Information request by TaxWatch, shared with us, revealed that in contrast to its previous claims, HMRC holds data needed to estimate the offshore tax gap

But it would not hand the information over ...

HMRC won't admit how much tax is lost offshore The taxman has the numbers needed to estimate how much cash is lost to overseas havens – but it isn't sharing the details

🚨 An MP has demanded HMRC release its official estimate of how much tax is being lost to offshore havens – information we discovered is currently being withheld by the authority

Big banks’ coal money is derailing Indonesia’s green plans HSBC and Citigroup are among the banks backing a renewable plan – while helping fund coal expansion

The effects of Indonesia’s coal expansion are widely felt – with local communities reporting failed crops and rainwater running black with coal dust

Read more 👇