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 "bankers" ...
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New York Times: Princelings
The “Princelings” series looked at the business dealings of the relatives of China’s senior leaders, and how they were able, in some cases, to amass billions of dollars worth of shares in public and private companies. The Times gave a detailed account of the wealth accumulated by the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and the relatives of former Central Bank chief Dai Xianglong. The investigation found that much of the wealth was hidden behind layers of private companies, suggesting the wealth was intentionally disguised or hidden from the public. No media outlet had ever offered such a detailed account of the wealth of a family of a senior leader. The Times also found evidence that the family of the prime minister and the former Central Banker received pre-IPO shares of Ping An Insurance after those two senior officials were aggressively lobbied by executives at Ping An and their bankers. The lobbyists had sought special approval or licenses for Ping. The departments the two officials oversaw eventually gave the approval, The Times found.
Tags: Chinese politicians; China's senior leaders; business dealings
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The Puddingstone Group
The Puddingstone Group is a real estate investment company started in 1999 by a judge, a banker, and a real estate developer, which has become involved in dozens of lawsuits arising from alleged predatory practices, breaches of legal ethics, campaign contributions, and collusion with businesses, banks, and politicians.
Tags: Real Estate; Legal Ethics
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The Monster How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America -- and Spawned a Glboal Crisis
"The Monster" investigates the history of the subprime mortgage business by unraveling the corporate histories of the industry's two most important players, Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. The book documents the widespread fraud and law-breaking that were largely to blame for the financial system's meltdown.
Tags: Lehman Brothers; Ameriquest; subprime mortgage; lender
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Bankers Life and Casualty
Bankers Life & Casualty is a 100-year old insurance company based in Chicago that prides itself on serving hte senior citizen community. But Inside Edition exposed a major financial scheme that propted a Senate investigation.
Tags: Bankers Life & Casualty; senior; elderly; Medicare
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Wall Street Money Machine
The series showed how some bankers on Wall Street saw problems in the housing market long before the public and policy makers. This meant huge gains for the bankers and a loss of jobs and savings for the public.
Tags: Wall Street; bankers; housing crisis; housing bubble; mortgage
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Wall Street Money Machine
This series of stories reveals that several Wall Street bankers saw indications of the housing market meltdown "long before the public and policy makers." The three-part series offers a different look at the all too familiar results of bigger payouts for the bankers and huge job and savings losses for the public. The series covers the hedge fund Magnetar and the "mechanics" behind the failure of Merrill Lynch.
Tags: Merrill Lynch; Magnetar; CDOs; Wall Street; bankers; gains; payouts; economic crisis; BankAmerica; hedge fund; housing market; bribery
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"House of Cards"
In this investigation, CNBC takes a look at the beginnings of the "global economic collapse." After 9/11, the U.S. government "dropped interest rates" in an attempt to breathe new life into the economy. The investigation reveals how Wall Street took on unstable mortgages to "re-package it and sell it to investors." This story includes personal accounts from home buyers, mortgage brokers, bankers and more.
Tags: hedge-fund; housing market; economic collapse; recession; Wall Street; George W. Bush; Alan Greenspan; Henry Paulson; bailouts; bankrupt; credit crisis
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Financial Fraud
Wall Street Journal reporter, Mark Maremont exposes a California investment banker turned con man who was charged with money laundering. A deeper look into the life of Danny Pang reveals questions about the validity of his credentials and of the mysterious death of his first wife. Mr. Pang denied any wrongdoings until his death was found dead in September 2009.
Tags: Danny Pang; Private Equity Management Group Inc.; Ponzi scheme; Janie Louise Pang;
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Agriprocessors and Beyond: Inside the Kosher Meat Industry
This series of articles looked inside the kosher meat industry, a quietly guarded world worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The reporting began two years ago when the Forward's Nathaniel Popper wrote about the working conditions at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse, Agriprocessors, in Postville, Iowa, setting off a wide-ranging debate in Jewish community. The paper has continued to follow the problems at Agriprocessors and reported early in 2008 on the debate withing the kosher industry about a widely used but apparently cruel method of kosher slaughter known as shackled and hoist. Then, in the middle of the year, federal agents, citing the Forward's reporting raided the Agriprocessors' plant in Iowa. Since the raid, the Forward has followed each legal development, but has also reported on elements of the story that were being overlooked. The first such article detailed the way in which Agriprocessors had handled immigrants and unions at its Brooklyn warehouse-sparking a case that went to the Supreme Court. The next set of articles investigated the working conditions in the rest of the kosher eat industry, with particular attention paid to the labor battles at Agriprocessors' biggest competitor, Alle Processing, which had been completely ignored. The article and chart on industry-wide conditions were the first effort to systematically set down the relative size and production of the major players in the kosher meat industry. The Forward also wrote a lengthy report on the immigrant workers from Agriprocessors who had been released from prison and ordered to testify in federal court against their supervisors, but were given no means to support themselves before the hearing date. After Agriprocessors declared bankruptcy, the Forward reported on the unnoticed consequences for the town and its inhabitants, from the lowly turkeys to the local bankers.
Tags: meat processing; kosher meat; agriculture; Agriprocessors; meatpacking; immigrant workers
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Schools Flunk Finance; The Fleecing of Alabama; JPMorgan's Muni Morass
In "Schools Flunk Finance" (March 2008), reporters Martin Z. Braun and William Selway revealed how JPMorgan had deceived school districts in Pennsylvania by promising them free money if they entered into swaps deals. In Erie, for example, a banker said all the district had to do was sign a contract, and JPMorgan would give $750,000. The bank didn't disclose the exact terms of the contract or its fee. Three years after the schools took the upfront money, Erie paid $2.9 million to JPMorgan to get out of the rapidly souring swaps deal. After their reporting in Pennsylvania, Braun and Selway went back to Jefferson County, Ala. In "The Fleecing of Alabama: The Bills Come Due" (July 2008), the reporters found that Jefferson County was nearly broke because it couldn't make its monthly payments to JPMorgan. In "JPMorgan's Muni Morass" (December 2008), Braun and Selway exposed more cases in which the bank victimized taxpayers in states and municipalities.
Tags: JPMorgan; financial news; public schools; Jefferson County, Ala.; Erie, Penn.