The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "World Bank" ...
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Bad Neighbor Banks: How Big Lenders Spread Blight
Across South Florida, on block after block, homes abandoned in the foreclosure crisis have become eyesores, depressing property values, and posing health and safety hazards for nearby families. The Sun Sentinel investigated and found who was responsible for letting these homes rot: some of the world’s largest banks.
Tags: Hazards; property; banks; public health; public safety
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World of Trouble
This story is a “rare account of the forces that created the U.S. housing bubble and tore the world economy to pieces”. The major finding of the story was executives inside one of the largest lending companies, deliberately ignored warnings from their front line salesmen. This company was loaning money to people who would not be able to pay them back and later was victim to “more than 30 billion dollars of bad loans”.
Tags: World Savings and Loan; Golden West Financial; Wachovia; bank; mortgage; industry; Paul Bishop; homeowners
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"Black Money"
This investigative report reveals that a "trillion dollars in bribes," are paid each year regardless of an international anti-bribery treaty that is in place. The bribes, also known as "black money," are used by "multinational companies" to get overseas business. The bribes cause a break in the "stability of governments" and "distort the marketplace."
Tags: Margaret Thatcher; British Aerospace; Department of Justice; Saudi Arabia; bribery; bribes; World Bank; Securities and Exchange Commission; Jimmy Carter
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Early on the Case: Identity Theft
A person's identity is stolen in the United States every three seconds. The investigation examined the underground world of identity theft and the online chat rooms where scammers buy and sell social security numbers, credit card information, bank account numbers and more. The series also investigated medical identity theft.
Tags: identity theft; scam; credit card; social security number; medical identity theft; chat room
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WAMU: Inside The Collapse
It's October 2008: major banks are failing, Congress is bailing them out with taxpayer dollars. The public deserves to know how we got into the mess. ABC News Nightline's "Inside the Collapse" was first to expose a top-down, company-wide reckless lending strategy that led to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history: Washington Mutual Bank. Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas got inside Washington Mutual's culture and uncovered what really went wrong using original reporting, an exclusive whistleblower interview, a video of a jubilant company party, exclusive internal company documents, former employee interviews and victim interviews. His piece, as well as a follow-up on World news with Charles Gibson and articles on ABCNews.com, caught the attention of law enforcement. Two days after the piece aired, federal prosecutors announced that because of "intense public interest" they were investigating the bank's activities with assistance from the FBI, FDIC, SEC and IRS. The story was widely reported in the national media in the following weeks.
Tags: Washington Mutual; Securities and Exchange Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; FDIC; Federal Bureau of Investigation; economics
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Zero Day Threat
"Zero Day Threat is a seminal work that explains how the banking industry's decades-long drive to shape a cashless society, built on too-easy credit, collided with the emergence of the Internet to spawn the fast-expanding world of cybercrime."
Tags: cybercrime; banking industry; Internet; web sites; computer crime; internet scams; identity theft; credit bureau; email virus
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"Clusterbomb" and "Bank Secrets"
In "Clusterbomb," the Dutch pension funds are the second biggest in the world. ZEMBLA sought to find out which companies they used for investing and why this information was not accessible to the public. "Bank Secrets" looked at what banks do with their savings and in which companies is this money invested.
Tags: banks; investments; pensions; shareholders
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Toxic Debt
"In 2007, the financial world came unhinged. A rise in late mortgage payments triggered hedge fund blowups, massive Wall Street write-offs, ousted CEOs, Congressional hearings, and intervention by central bankers and finance ministers. In a series of exclusive and prescient stories, Bloomberg exposed the ties that connected unregulated mortgage brokers, fee-hungry Wall Street banks, conflicted credit rating companies, and the managers of money market funds and public pension plans."
Tags: mortgage payments; Wall Street; brokers; banks; credit rating firms
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Cleaning Up the World Bank
The U.S. World Bank is most important atni-poverty institution that operates in countries trying to develop, but it is also a starting place for corruption. Over an estimated $100 billion has been lost due to corruption over the years. The acts of mid-level bank employee Leslie Jean-Robert Peans highlight the extent of the corruption; he joined the bank when he had $10 in a savings account, but was soon seen handing out $100 bills like change.
Tags: Paul Wolfowitz; banks; extortion; stealing; theft; James Wolfensohn
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The Politics of Oil
This investigation is basically a comprehensive examination of the political influence of the international oil industry. The Center for Public Integrity found that "Big Oil" has spent more than $440 million in the past 6 years on politicians and lobbyists in Washington. Oil companies from Indonesia, Venezuela, and the OPEC countries, among others, spent millions to enlist such Washington insiders as Bob Dole to protect their interests with the US government.
Tags: Energy; Oil; Gas; Koch Industries; OPEC; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; World Bank; Venezuela; Indonesia; CAR; campaign contributions; lobbyists; National Petroleum Council; ExxonMobil; ChevronTexaco; Justice Department