Column C, with Leah McGrath Goodman
Adventures in corruption, climate change, crypto and other calamities with investigative journalist Leah McGrath Goodman. Why live in Column A or Column B – when you could live in Column C? An alt-alt-thinking podcast for those unafraid of the darkness.
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7. Secrets of the Royal Family's Money
06/14/2023
7. Secrets of the Royal Family's Money
The much-awaited UK Coronation episode featuring King Charles III and Queen Camilla is not really about the Coronation (although we do dish on the details). It's about the Royal Family's heaping mass of wealth and their long history of hiding it, while demanding their subjects generously fund their lifestyles. Unbeknownst to many, the most sophisticated "legal" financial arrangements in the world take place on tax shelters that answer to the British Crown. Here's what we know about how the Royal Family makes its money, takes its money, and how they conceal it from the public by creating tax havens to serve themselves and the world's wealthiest people, multinational corporations and other royal families. Why should we care? Because these networks are enriching themselves while assiduously exploiting you. Show notes:
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6. Sex, Lies and Offshore Empires: How a Bahamas Startup Worth $32 Billion Became a Mirage
01/31/2023
6. Sex, Lies and Offshore Empires: How a Bahamas Startup Worth $32 Billion Became a Mirage
Sam Bankman-Fried is a 30-year-old American cryptopreneur who ran a sprawling empire of 134 entities (including in Jersey) worth tens of billions of dollars from an offshore aerie in the Bahamas. With a bunch of his closest friends. Some of whom were romantically entangled. He is now denying stealing billions of dollars in customer funds from house arrest. If there’s ever been a story like this, we haven’t heard it. BONUS: A spirited discussion on Prince Harry’s very strange memoir, “Spare,” and what we believe to be the love quotient of the UK Royal Family. Show Notes: - Leah McGrath Goodman, Institutional Investor, January 11, 2023. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION, Plaintiff, v. SAMUEL BANKMAN-FRIED, FTX TRADING LTD D/B/A FTX.COM, ALAMEDA RESEARCH LLC, CAROLINE ELLISON and ZIXIAO “GARY” WANG Defendants. Keeping Up with the Bankman-Frieds SEC Charges Samuel Bankman-Fried with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Asset Trading Platform FTX Mikey Guggenheim - I Like the Stock feat. Derik (Visualizer)
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5. How Jersey Got Abramoviched: Only $7 Billion at Stake
12/14/2022
5. How Jersey Got Abramoviched: Only $7 Billion at Stake
On April 12, 2022, Jersey Police raided a number of properties linked to Russian billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich and his business activities on the island. Jersey also froze $7 billion of his assets. By November, Jersey authorities were suddenly calling their own raid "unlawful," offering a "private" apology to Abramovich and taking the liberty of destroying the materials it had confiscated in the police raid. Jersey also used funds from the public purse to pay the globally sanctioned billionaire undisclosed damages. What happened? Additional topics: Financial secrecy, Trump, television series (plural) on Jersey's scandals from 1988 to the present and the color of the Lamborghini Countach. Show notes: The mighty Lamborghini Countach Worldwide coverage of Roman Abramovich’s tangle with the island of Jersey Jersey tries to shrug off the Roman Abramovich mess World in Action, Episode 28, “Dirty Money” (1988): French film series just out this autumn on Jersey’s scandals titled, "La Ventre de la Bête" (translation: "The Belly of the Beast"): Trump sues journalist over his true worth:
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4. American Heiress: A Dark Fairytale
10/01/2022
4. American Heiress: A Dark Fairytale
Tanya Dick-Stock lived a rarefied life of luxury, with fancy homes, collectible cars and an English butler straight from Buckingham Palace. But her life was not what it appeared to be and, when her American family moved their wealth to the island of Jersey, she lost far more than her fortune. Tanya tells an unbelievable cautionary tale of how she learned of a sprawling global fraud that began in her familial home, how she and her husband became whistleblowers -- and how she's slowly unraveling decades of lies to reveal the truths that affect us all. Side topics: Tax havens, the global wealth gap, trusts companies, trusts, income inequality, judicial corruption, the UK Royal Family, dark money, terrorism, sex-trafficking and "the second economy." Bonus: How Tanya found clues to global financial crimes in a piece of high-end, conceptual art. Show notes: John W. Dick, Liberty Global, Interlock and artist Mark Lombardi
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3. Interview-in-Exile: Jersey Senator Stuart Syvret speaks for the first time from the USA
09/01/2022
3. Interview-in-Exile: Jersey Senator Stuart Syvret speaks for the first time from the USA
Citations: A deep-dive with Jersey Senator Stuart Syvret for the first time from exile in the USA. And a warning: You will never look at tiny islands, global finance or the UK Royal Family the same way again. Stuart Syvret. (The Spider's Web): https://youtu.be/0giulJILfn0
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2. 'The Jersey Way' – A Trip You Won't Forget
08/01/2022
2. 'The Jersey Way' – A Trip You Won't Forget
Leah returns from Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, with news of her travels and 'The Jersey Way.' Updates: How survivors of abuse are still dodging their abusers on the island; how the island's media troll children's rights advocates; and, perhaps most striking, how to run a 'democratic' election debate to omit any questions to parliamentary candidates about whether they committed acts of sexual assault against minors. Side topics: The corruption of small towns, the risk of speaking truth to power and ZZ Top. Bonus: One high-ranking Jersey senator leaves the island after repeated death threats -- for the USA. Show notes:
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1. The Island of Jersey – No, It’s Not New Jersey !
06/13/2022
1. The Island of Jersey – No, It’s Not New Jersey !
Leah gets ready to head back to the island of Jersey – a $2 trillion UK tax shelter off the coast of France – but she has some reservations after it tried to ban her from entering for committing acts of journalism. Co-host Reggie gets her to open up. Digressions include the perils of unmasking in Vermont, ancient dolmens, the Queen’s money and whether a milquetoast is a breakfast treat.
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