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For months, Selam Gebrekidan, an investigative reporter for The New York Occasions, would stare at a maze of handwritten diagrams, drawings and charts on a wall inside her Hong Kong condominium. She was attempting to piece collectively how precisely one of many world’s largest cash laundering networks operates.
“I wanted a visible assist as I used to be breaking it down into steps,” she defined. Her effort was put to good use: This week, Ms. Gebrekidan and Pleasure Dong, a reporter-researcher who covers China for The Occasions, printed a posh investigation that gives an inside take a look at how some scammers launder cash and get away with it. For his or her article, Ms. Gebrekidan and Ms. Dong spoke to just about a half-dozen scammers and their launderers, after which described every step of the laundering course of.
“We wished to make the story accessible for readers,” Ms. Gebrekidan mentioned of the investigation, which focuses on a single laundering community in Southeast Asia. “However first we needed to perceive the complexities ourselves.”
In a video name from Hong Kong, Ms. Gebrekidan and Ms. Dong mentioned interviewing the scammers and cash launderers for his or her article and the questions nonetheless prime of thoughts for them. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
What initially led you to pursue this story?
SELAM GEBREKIDAN I began trying into cash laundering broadly about 9 months in the past. Pleasure and I wished to grasp how the prison underworld works.
We had acquired ideas that town of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, like quite a lot of different on line casino hubs in that area, was a scorching spot for scamming and cash laundering, particularly after the pandemic. After I visited, I used to be struck by the variety of unfinished buildings on each avenue. The higher flooring in these empty buildings had fluorescent lights on, all night time lengthy. I stored considering: Who’s up there? And what are they doing?
It took us some time to achieve individuals’s belief, however then, in January, we bought a break. Numerous criminals agreed to speak to us.
How did you achieve individuals’s belief?
JOY DONG We discovered somebody who was prepared to make introductions within the native scammer neighborhood, which was extremely useful. We shared meals with cash launderers and scammers. I’ve a sense that they’re fairly lonely and need to showcase what they’re doing to outsiders who received’t decide them. It’s like they’re boasting to a good friend about how a lot cash they make and the way sensible they’re.
Did you conduct most of your interviews in particular person?
GEBREKIDAN We had at the least one in-person assembly with everybody; nobody goes to speak to you on the telephone about these items, normally. They have been nearly all at eating places. We principally bought a tour of various Chinese language cuisines — Fujian to Hunan to Sichuan.
One night time after dinner, we watched a nine-minute fireworks present on the seaside. It was proper earlier than the lunar New 12 months and it appeared very costly. Later, we realized that the scammers gentle fireworks to have a good time their largest swindles. We have been shocked as a result of each time the fireworks go off, somebody has possible misplaced their life financial savings on the opposite finish.
How did you stability writing a compelling narrative with the truth that these are criminals victimizing individuals?
GEBREKIDAN We spoke to victims who wished to grasp: How did they transfer my cash so shortly? Why can’t I get it again? So we began attempting to reply these questions first.
Some readers wrote to us after the story got here out, speaking about how they misplaced religion on the earth and the psychological disaster they skilled after they have been focused. Like, who can I belief? Can I even belief myself to make the precise choices anymore? We have been attempting to point out individuals that there’s a complete system that’s designed to make you are feeling completely helpless.
What was your largest problem?
DONG After we discovered the Telegram channels the place nameless customers promote cash laundering providers, we started attempting to decode the messages. Every part’s in Chinese language, however a few of the lingo didn’t make sense. So we requested some former scammers, and so they defined it to us. Then we bought a cache of recordsdata — a sort of money-laundering handbook — from whistle-blowers, which had a dictionary of scammer language that we adopted to decipher extra messages.
What was your most stunning discovering?
GEBREKIDAN How brazen all of it is. While you go to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, you received’t consider what number of S.U.V.s you see on the road — it’s not typically that you just see these huge American automobiles in Asia, or anyplace on the earth. It’s like, the place’s this cash coming from?
You each plan to proceed reporting on this trade. What questions do you hope to reply nonetheless?
GEBREKIDAN As we have been reporting, we bought glimpses of how different components of the laundering trade operated that aren’t reported elsewhere — and, as you’ll be able to think about, we have been having a tough time breaking by. However we need to perceive how the system works. We need to present our readers that this world may be very a lot world. It’s equal to worldwide commerce in that it barely pays consideration to borders. Issues are finished in hours, or typically, seconds.
