Our focus
What we investigate
The IAOIJ exists to expose wrongdoing that powerful people and institutions would rather keep hidden — corruption, the abuse of power, corporate misconduct and the mistreatment of workers and the public. When that conduct is dragged into the light, things change.
Why it matters
Corruption and abuse are not victimless. They are expensive, and they are dangerous.
Corruption drains an estimated five per cent of global GDP every year — more than US$2.6 trillion by United Nations reckoning — and over a trillion dollars is paid in bribes annually. But the real cost is not measured only in money. It is measured in collapsed buildings put up with falsified safety certificates, in medicines that do not work, in stolen elections, in rivers poisoned for profit, and in the careers and dignity of people silenced for speaking up.
When wrongdoing goes unexamined it compounds: the powerful learn they are untouchable, honest businesses are undercut by dishonest ones, and public trust erodes until people stop believing that anything can be fixed. Independent, evidence-based journalism is one of the few forces that reliably interrupts that cycle — naming what happened, showing who is responsible, and creating a public record that regulators, courts and voters can act on.
The wrongdoing we expose
Where we dig, and why
Our members and cross-border desks pursue abuse across borders and sectors. These are the areas where we concentrate — and where a single document or a single brave source can change the story.
Money that buys silence
Kickbacks, rigged tenders, slush funds and bribes paid to win contracts or dodge the rules. We follow the money from shell companies and offshore accounts to the executives and officials on both ends of the deal.
When authority is turned against the public
Politicians, police, regulators and institutions using their position for private gain, to punish critics, or to escape accountability. We document how power is misused and who it harms — including high-profile cases that end in resignations, charges and arrests.
Fraud, money laundering and hidden wealth
Accounting fraud, sanctions evasion, tax abuse and the laundering of dirty money through property, banks and luxury assets. Our data team turns leaked registries and financial records into evidence a prosecutor can use.
Sexual harassment, discrimination and exploitation
Sexual harassment and assault covered up by employers, non-disclosure agreements used to protect abusers, wage theft, unsafe conditions and forced labour in supply chains. We give people who were silenced a way to be heard — safely, and on their terms.
Consumer harm and corporate cover-ups
Dangerous products, buried safety data, deceptive marketing, price-fixing, greenwashing and the quiet decisions that put profit ahead of people. When a company knows and stays silent, the public has a right to know too.
The networks that move contraband and cash
Trafficking in people, drugs, arms, wildlife and stolen goods — and the professional enablers, lawyers and bankers who make it look legitimate. Cross-border crime demands cross-border reporting.
Profit at the planet's expense
Illegal logging and mining, toxic dumping, and the companies clearing protected land while marketing themselves as green. We pair satellite data with reporting on the ground to show who is responsible.
Holding the unaccountable to account
Abuses by states and corporations, attacks on journalists and activists, and the impunity that lets them continue. We build the record so that, one day, it can be answered for.
From exposure to change
How sunlight becomes accountability
Verify
We authenticate documents, corroborate with independent sources and hold the reporting to a single, rigorous editorial standard.
Publish
Partner newsrooms publish together, in dozens of languages and countries at once, so the story cannot be buried in any one place.
Pressure
Public attention forces responses — regulators open inquiries, boards act, and prosecutors take notice.
Consequences
Charges, resignations, arrests, frozen assets and new laws. We track every outcome we can attribute to the work.
Who relies on this work
Our investigations serve more than readers
Journalists, newsrooms, communications and reputation firms, compliance and due-diligence teams, lawyers and researchers all draw on IAOIJ investigations, our member directory and our data to understand who has done what — and to act on it.
Confidential
Do you know about wrongdoing the public should know?
Whether it is corruption, fraud, an abuse of power or harassment covered up at work, you can reach us through encrypted channels. We never reveal our sources, and we can help you share safely.