will neal

Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 according to local police officials. DHS told Fox News that the man was “armed with a gun”. A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired. x.com/BillMelugin_...

A letter to the master of Trinity Hall, in response to her email to alumni regarding the Guardian's reporting this week:

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

When they kick you out of Georgia and you make it 9,000 miles to Argentina before the universe starts mocking you…

MAGA’s Hunter Biden Ukraine Bulldog Now Working for Foreign Spies GOP lawyer Ted Kittila helped push claims of foreign influence peddling against Hunter Biden even as he worked for an abusive foreign regime.

EXCLUSIVE: A top attorney behind MAGA’s push to see Hunter Biden jailed for violating foreign influence laws was at the same time working for an abusive foreign regime that tried to buy sinister surveillance software in the U.S.

Latest for @thedailybeast

www.thedailybeast.com/magas-hunter...

When journalist @willneal.bsky.social was barred from #Georgia, his life was turned upside down. But for citizens, the country’s slide into violent authoritarianism has left them in a far more dangerous position. Read his account in our latest magazine issue ⬇️
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

It’s been more than four months since I was expelled from Georgia with no word on a hearing date for my appeal. Here’s my latest for Index on Censorship about the ban, and what it says more broadly about the dire situation the country now finds itself in.
papyrus.exacteditions.com/issues/14183...

bylinetimes.com/2025/07/30/m...

Moscow’s Ties to the Georgian Regime Ran Through Kensington and Chelsea Leaked documents reveal how UK firm Hunnewell Partners, controlled by alleged enablers of Georgia’s ruling oligarch, facilitated a top Putin crony’s attempts to exploit the collapse of a more than $1....

bylinetimes.com/2025/03/31/m...

Loans for scares In Georgia, a news network’s propagandistic turn and an alleged loansharking scheme lead back to the same London-based firm — Meduza In the run-up to this month’s parliamentary vote, Georgia’s political crisis has continued to spiral on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts, with the ruling Georgian Dream party cracking down ...

meduza.io/en/feature/2...

Owner of Georgian broadcaster called country’s ‘propaganda megaphone’ is based in London Imedi TV owner denies criticism by EU disinformation monitor and says it is editorially independent

Spoke with Daniel Boffey for his @theguardian.com piece today on Hunnewell Partners. Good to see the issue getting more attention. Some links to my prior reporting on the group below.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Owner of Georgian broadcaster called country’s ‘propaganda megaphone’ is based in London Imedi TV owner denies criticism by EU disinformation monitor and says it is editorially independent

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Article doesn't have much that's new for people following #Georgia & reading @willneal.bsky.social coverage of Imedi and Hunnewell but at least brings the malfeasance to an even wider audience.

Elon Musk’s space unicorn has a scam problem | The Observer Cybercriminals are stealing the identities of investment firms to con millions out of would-be SpaceX investors

Pleased that our co-founder @nealysart.bsky.social
contributed to this deep dive by @theobserveruk.bsky.social
on #SpaceX investment fraud from @willneal.bsky.social
Scammers are leveraging AI & sophisticated tactics to defraud investors globally
#osint #investigations #investment #fraud #spaceX

Elon Musk’s space unicorn has a scam problem | The Observer Cybercriminals are stealing the identities of investment firms to con millions out of would-be SpaceX investors

🚨NEW: Amid Musk’s turn to Dark MAGA, the rush for SpaceX shares has seen fraudsters mercilessly targeting investors with no means of buying into the firm’s success. My debut @theobserveruk.bsky.social, on how one group used AI to dupe victims out of millions.👇

observer.co.uk/news/busines...

the entire section is worth reading.

@blairmcdougall.com "The complaint of the democracy activists I used to work with is that all of this brutality is happening while the regime’s money is washed through business associates in London."

Hello @willneal.bsky.social !

No mincing of words there.

NATO Helped Georgia Counter Russian Trolls. Then the Strategy Backfired As a previously successful communications initiative falls into disarray, the Black Sea country’s drift away from the West seems inexorable

Mamuka Mdinaradze, a key architect of Georgia's authoritarian shift, has just been appointed head of the state security service.

Last May, @willneal.bsky.social reported on the government unit funded by Western countries, before being used against them.

newlinesmag.com/reportage/na...

A gripping exposé by @willneal.bsky.social unravels the billion-dollar legal intrigue linking oligarchs, offshore financiers, and sanctioned assets — all playing out in UK courts. A must-read for anyone curious about lawfare, kleptocracy, and shadow geopolitics

But Guriev appears wholly unconvinced the buck stops with Gorbachev, or Kushnir, or Hunnewell, or even 777, suggesting his suspicions may very well be directed elsewhere.

Where exactly, for now, being the billion-dollar question. 13/ENDS

After losing his claim against Guriev, Gorbachev says he now doesn’t have the funds to meet the roughly £12 million awarded to the Kremlin oligarch in damages, after Kushnir, Hunnewell and 777 all inexplicably stopped financing his legal costs back in May 2023. 12/13

Blazquez first met Rukhadze in Tbilisi sometime in the early 2000s. Public rulings from separate UK proceedings show Blazquez later went on to assist Hunnewell tracking down or managing assets on behalf of late Georgian oligarch Arkady Patarkatsishvili’s family. 11/13

The request that 777 be brought in on the funding deal appears to have come off the back of Hunnewell co-founder Irakli Rukhadze’s close friendship with one of the Miami group’s operating partners, Andres Blazquez. 10/13

Currently the target of a money laundering investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, 777 has a long history of dealings with now-sanctioned Russian oligarchs, including key Putin confidant Gennady Timchenko and billionaire fintech entrepreneur Oleg Boyko. 9/13

It’s not clear under what circumstances, or why exactly, Hunnewell Partners teamed up with Kushnir. What’s known, however, is that the firm soon requested that 777 Partners, a shady Miami investment group, also be brought in to assist with financing. 8/13

Moscow’s Ties to the Georgian Regime Ran Through Kensington and Chelsea Leaked documents reveal how UK firm Hunnewell Partners, controlled by alleged enablers of Georgia’s ruling oligarch, facilitated a top Putin crony’s attempts to exploit the collapse of a more than $1....

Kushnir was later joined by Hunnewell Partners. Described by critics as an “enabler” of Georgia’s brutal Ivanishvili regime, Byline has reported on the UK group before, exposing its secret dealings with sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich. 7/13
👉 shorturl.at/KIRyi

Documents from those proceedings reveal Gorbachev’s lawsuit was first funded by Levi Kushnir—a controversial Israeli businessman and former Portsmouth FC chairman, who acquired his stake in the club from Alexandre Gaydamak, a Russian oligarch convicted of arms trafficking in Angola. 6/13

Gorbachev’s claim backfired after the courts ruled his evidence “was contradictory, lacked credibility, and at times, was plainly false.” Guriev, suspecting his adversary had not acted alone, has since brought new proceedings in Florida to ascertain who else may have been involved, and why. 5/13

Back in 2019, Guriev was sued in the UK by Alexander Gorbachev, an old comrade from his days as a Communist Party youth secretary, who claimed Guriev promised him a $1.3 billion share in PhosAgro over the course of conversations in London pubs, restaurants and saunas more than a decade prior. 4/13

While Guriev was sanctioned by the US, the UK and the EU in 2022 for his ownership of companies generating significant revenue for Russia’s war machine, it was not, in fact, the first time his stake in PhosAgro had caused him trouble. 3/13

With an estimated wealth of $9.5 billion, Andrei Guriev is the former Kremlin politician and close Putin confidant who controls, among other assets, PhosAgro—Moscow’s largest producer of phosphate fertilizers, worth about $7.6 billion. 2/13

Mystery at the Heart of £1 Billion UK Legal Offensive Against Top Putin Ally A sanctioned former Kremlin politician was sued for shares in his multi-billion-dollar fertiliser company. But why did a trio of companies with links to Russian interests in football get involved?

🚨NEW: Latest for @bylinetimes.bsky.social with Josimar's Paul Brown, on how an Israeli tycoon, a shady Miami investment group, and a UK firm controlled by enablers of the Georgian regime became embroiled in a £1bn legal spat between powerful Russian business interests. 1/13
👉 shorturl.at/8hHYG

Georgian Dream’s anti-western policy: How Iranian companies are using Georgia to bypass sanctions - Civic Idea HOW IRANIAN COMPANIES ARE USING GEORGIA TO BYPASS SANCTIONS? Civic IDEA’s latest investigation sheds light on a little-known but deeply troubling dimension of Iran-Georgia relations. The report exposes how Iranian businessmen are using Georgia as a strategic transit point to evade international sanctions and channel funds back to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Our findings reveal […]

New report from the folks at Civic Idea on how Iranian companies appear to be using Georgian markets to circumvent international sanctions →

civicidea.ge/en/georgian-...