Kleptoscope returns with an evening focussed on Nigeria, a country criticised by former Prime Minister David Cameron as “fantastically corrupt”. Our panel of experts will address the roots of Nigerian corruption, ask why so much of the stolen money ends up in London, and discuss why more isn’t being done to give it back.

Host:

Oliver Bullough is an award-winning journalist and the author of two books about Russian history and politics, The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame be Great. He is also an expert guide for the Kleptocracy Tours initiative, which exposes money laundering via property in London.

Speakers:

Chibundu Onuzo is a Nigerian novelist, whose recently-published book Welcome to Lagos is a blackly-comic exploration of corrupt officials, scam artists, idealistic liberals and more in the greatest city in Africa. The Guardian praised its “Nollywood-like storylines and clever turns in plot”, while The Economist loved the way that the words of the “rich and poor, urban and rural, privileged and powerless, Muslim and Christian, Igbo and Yoruba collide to spectacular effect”.

Eva Anderson is a Senior Legal Research Officer at Transparency International’s Defence & Security Team. She has previously worked at Goldman Sachs, the Financial Services Authority, and as a forensic investigator at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. She is a qualified barrister, and an expert in the difficulties faced in attempting to recover the proceeds of corruption that have been stashed in the West.

Matthew Page was, until recently, the US intelligence community’s top Nigeria expert, advising the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and more. His book Nigeria: what everyone needs to know will be published later this year by Oxford University Press.

EU-27 governments and the Brussels institutions have been tough on the bloc’s negotiating position and are now waiting to hear what the UK wants. Meanwhile official reaction on the continent to the high court’s ruling on article 50 has been quiet, with national governments regarding the decision as an internal matter.

We will be joined by EU correspondents and European journalists to discuss European reactions to Brexit negotiations and explore how UK press coverage matches up to sentiments on the continent.

Chaired by Simon Wilson, Editor, BBC Europe Bureau

Speakers (full panel announced soon)

Matthew Holehouse is a journalist covering Brexit for MLex, the news agency specializing in global regulatory risk. He was previously Brussels Correspondent and Political Correspondent at the Daily Telegraph.

Joris Luyendijk is a Dutch journalist and author of Swimming with Sharks: My Journey Into the World of the Bankers. He used to write the Guardian‘s Banking Blog, which looked at the world of finance from an anthropological perspective.

Alex Barker is Brussels Bureau Chief for the Financial Times

Sonia Stolper is UK and Ireland Correspondent for Libération.

After two successful Kleptoscope talks discussing the former Soviet Union and the Middle East, we come closer to home, with an exploration of Britain’s offshore tax havens. The Channel Islands, Cayman Islands and others pay host to enormous capital flows, as well as untold thousands of shell companies, but are they are they as dubious as they are painted?

Hosted by investigative journalist Oliver Bullough, Kleptoscope #3 will bust myths and uncover the facts about Britain’s big companies hiding away from view.

Oliver Bullough is an award-winning journalist and the author of two books about Russian history and politics, The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame be Great. He is also an expert guide for the Kleptocracy Tours initiative, which exposes money laundering via property in London.

Professor Ronan Palan is one of the world’s leading academic experts on tax havens . He will sketch out the dimensions of the offshore world.

Professor Anastasia Nesvetailova, also of City University, specialises in the way the finance industry uses offshore jurisdictions.

John Christensen worked as an economic adviser to the States of Jersey, before founding the Tax Justice Network. He is a top campaigner against tax havens, and has done more than almost anyone to put them in the international spotlight.

This talk will feature groundbreaking stories focusing on Arab Spring countries, exploring how kleptocrats from the region have used the services of the British capital to retain and launder their money.

Ala’a Shehabi, of Bahrain Watch, will reveal how Bahraini officials built luxury artificial islands in the sea, hid the transactions behind layers of offshore companies, then spent the proceeds on high-end real estate in London and how this fuelled the uprising in 2011 and subsequent repression in the country.

Ben Cowdock from Transparency International will present a new TI-UK report on dirty money in the UK, its role in the Arab Spring and the need for urgent reform in the UK’s asset recovery regime. He will address the UK’s role as a safe haven for corrupt money, giving an overview of the systemic weaknesses of the UK’s mechanisms against the laundering of corrupt funds.

Finally, Richard Brooks of Private Eye will demonstrate the map he and his colleagues created of all the properties in England and Wales that are owned offshore. The map gives crucial insights into the role of anonymous companies in distorting the British property market.

Oliver Bullough is an award-winning journalist and the author of two books about Russian history and politics, The Last Man in Russia and Let Our Fame be Great. He is also an expert guide for the Kleptocracy Tours initiative, which exposes money laundering via property in London.

In European capitals this was seen as an existential threat to the entire European project, while Eurosceptics across the UK saw it as the perfect moment to pull up the drawbridge. The political establishment fired back with a barrage of government data, third-country endorsements and world bodiesʼ opinions, unsure whether these long-trusted political weapons weren’t firing blanks.

Prime Minister Theresa May has announced she will trigger the formal Brexit negotiation process by the end of March 2017. Drawing on analysis of official and off-the-record meetings with senior politicians as well as with ordinary voters, we will be joined by a panel of experts to discuss where post-referendum Britain is heading, how we got here, and what lessons might be learned.

Chaired by Jamie Coomarasamy, presenter on BBC World Service programme Newshour.

Speakers (full panel announced soon):

Gary Gibbon is Political Editor of Channel 4 News. He has reported on UK politics for the programme since 1997, including fi ve general elections and major EU and G7/G20 summits. He won the 2006 RTS Home News Award with Jon Snow for revealing the Attorney-Generalʼs legal opinion on the Second Iraq War, the 2008 Political Studies Association Broadcast Journalist of the Year award, and the 2010 Royal Television Societyʼs Specialist Broadcaster of the Year award.

Bojan Pancevski has been covering Europe at large as the The Sunday Times’ European Union Correspondent since 2009. He travels extensively across Europe covering diverse issues ranging from the war in eastern Ukraine to Brexit. Currently, his reporting is focused on EU affairs, European politics and diplomacy, migration, terrorism and German politics. Prior to his present assignment he was covering Central and Eastern Europe, based in Vienna and Berlin.

Iain Macwhirter is the political commentator for the Herald and Sunday Herald. His latest book is Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster won a referendum but lost Scotland has been a best seller. His three part 2013 TV series “Road to Referendum” was nominated for a Bafta. A former BBC correspondent and political presenter, Iain spent nearly 10 years in the Westminster lobby presenting programmes including “Westminster Live” before returning to Scotland in 1999 to help launch the Sunday Herald and present BBC’s “Holyrood Live”. He has been a columnist for The Observer, The New Statesman and The Scotsman among other publications. He is the former Rector of Edinburgh University.

Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London in the United Kingdom and was appointed in January 2014 as Director of the UK in a Changing Europe Initiative.

90% of the goods we consume in the West are manufactured in far-off lands and brought to us by ship. The cargo shipping industry is a key player in world economy and forms the basis of our very model of modern civilisation; without it, it would be impossible to fulfil the ever-increasing demands of our societies.

Yet the functioning and regulations of this business remain largely obscure to many, and its hidden costs affect us all. Due to their size, freight ships no longer fit in traditional city harbours; they have moved out of the public’s eye, behind barriers and check points. The film answers questions such as: Who pulls the strings in this multi-billion dollar business? To what extent does the industry control our policy makers? How does it affect the environment above and below the water-line? And what’s life like for modern seafarers?

Taking us on a journey over seas and oceans, the newest film from veteran director Denis Delestrac (Banking Nature) reveals in an audacious and gripping investigation the many faces of worldwide freight shipping and sheds light on the consequences of an all-but-visible industry.

Directed by: Denis Delestrac
Country: Spain
Year: 2016
Runtime: 90 mins

The panel of experts at “Times are Changing”: What Does This Mean for the People of Cuba? on Friday, May 13, provided a nuanced view of the different layers of a society in transition.

The chair of the discussion Juliana Ruhfus, who recently dedicated an episode of her programme at Al-Jazeera English to Cuban economics, invited the speakers to critically evaluate the reporting on the Cuban reality.

“We need to reign in this ‘changing Cuba’ narrative. Yes, you’ve got the private sector, yes, you’ve got a new relationship with the US, Obama and all sorts of European heads of states and foreign ministers going with trade delegations, you’ve got the new foreign investment law. But at the same time for most people this is going very slowly,” Michael Voss, correspondent for CCTV.

Helen Yaffe, a specialist in the history of political economy, pointed out that reporters should be clearer about the underlying motivation of the United States. “The US objective hasn’t changed. And Obama himself is very clear about it. They still would like to see the end of the socialist system in Cuba.” She also noted that this agenda has quietly risen from pressure by other Latin American countries to involve Cuba in negotiations and the historical shortcomings of the US administration.

Emilio San Pedro, who reports on Cuba and Latin America for the BBC, added that the US motivation is also driven by the vision of lucrative investment. “I think they saw the opportunity because of the economic changes.”

Will Grant, BBC correspondent based in Havana since September 2014, also described the welcoming approach of Cubans to the rapprochement. “I think people are very, very tired of the same dynamic, same rhetoric and in that sense this change, whatever it may be, is welcome.”

Mr. San Pedro also admitted that nostalgia plays a huge role in the minds of Cubans, however, the young generation is emerging as a surprisingly rational and pragmatic group.

The panel also discussed an unprecendented protest in front of Ecuadorian embassy last year following an announcement that the state will require visa from the Cubans planning to visit. Mr Voss considers this the biggest popular unrest by Cubans who don’t normally engage in politics.

Pointing to the statistics, Ms Yaffe showed “the average salary in the state sector has gone up by 43% between 2011 and 2015.” Nevertheless, the raise has been uneven. Whereas those in the medical sector have seen their salaries rise two to three times, people in the education sector are still waiting. She also noted the imbalance in covering the country from Havana: “29 % of the Cubans work in the non-state sector and all the focus of the reporting is on those.”

Mr Grant tried to assess the extent of freedom of expression as a foreign correspondent in Cuba and recalled a rather positive story of Cuban medics helping in western Africa during the Ebola outbreak for which he hasn’t been granted access. “They’re protecting themselves, they’re protecting their revolution from a kind of spin (…) So it’s easier just to let the agency to say it.”

He also emphasised that journalists should make more effort to find broader angles and avoid focusing only on the institutional narrative between Washington and Havana. “It’s a very very special time to be here, it’s a very good story. (…)We need to find good new inventive creative ways making sure that the Cuban reality is at the front of what we’re doing.”

UPDATE: Unfortunately, on account of legal challenges directed at the Frontline Club, this event will no longer include a screening of Bloody Money as originally advertised. The event will still be going ahead minus the screening – and promises to be a fascinating discussion on the wider issue of corruption in Ukraine, featured three key experts in this field. 

This decision has been taken on receipt of a legal challenge waged by Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP on behalf of former Ukrainian Minister of Ecology Mykola Zlochevskyi, who features prominently in the film. As a small charitable organisation we do not have the resources to enter into a legal battle of this sort.

Please contact the office at events@www.beta.frontlineclub.com if you require further information. 

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with presenter and journalist Oliver Bullough; executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Daria Kaleniuk; and Shauna Leven, Global Witness’ Campaigns Director on corruption.

In 2014, Western countries made Ukrainians a promise. They pledged to find the money stolen by Ukraine’s deposed president, as well as by his friends and relatives, and to return it. Ukraine was in desperate need of funds, as it sought to repel a Russian invasion, to maintain basic services, to pay its foreign debt, and to end – once and for all – its crippling epidemic of corruption. Two years on, it’s time to ask how that is going.

Bloody Money tells two stories. One is of a Ukrainian oligarch’s bank account – and the $23 million it contained. In unprecedented detail, it reveals where the money came from, how it was laundered, and what happened when a British judge ruled on its provenance. The other story is that of a Ukrainian mother, and her battle to find medicines for her haemophiliac daughter, in a country where healthcare is just one more opportunity for corrupt officials to make money.

Bloody Money reveals how kleptocrats use shell companies to obscure the origins of their stolen money, and how Western enablers – lawyers, accountants, and more – assist them in doing so. It also shows how Ukrainian officials continue to run corrupt schemes, despite 2014’s revolution, and how that is sabotaging the country’s reform efforts.

Directed by award-winning director Havana Marking and presented by award-winning investigative reporter Oliver Bullough, Bloody Money is produced in collaboration with Sundance and Vice News, as part of the prize awarded to Global Witness when it won the 2014 TED Prize.

Director: Havana Marking
Producer: Oliver Bullough
Presenter: Oliver Bullough
Country: United Kingdom
Runtime: 38′
Roast Beef Productions

Inspired by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s best-selling book The Spirit Level, Katharine Round’s accomplished debut feature illustrates a more personal account of how inequality shapes our societies.

The film weaves together seven characters each striving for a better life: Wall Street psychologist Alden wants to make it to the top 1%; Glaswegian rapper Darren just wants to stay sober; Newcastle carer Rochelle wishes her job wasn’t looked down on so much; Jen in Sacramento, California, doesn’t even talk to the neighbours in her upscale gated community – they’ve made it clear to her she isn’t “their kind”. It becomes clear that a higher income doesn’t ensure happiness and inequality hurts us all – rich and poor.

The film travels across the world and into individual lives to see how broad economic shifts have shaped not only our physical circumstances, but also the way we think and what we believe in. It reveals, piece by piece, the forces that have undermined our economic foundations, and led to a dramatic transfer of wealth to the very top: the top 0.1% in the US own as much wealth as the bottom 90% of the population.

The film features high profile commentators, including former economic adviser to Margaret Thatcher, Sir Alan Budd, historian Sir Max Hastings, economist Ha-Joon Chang, Noam Chomsky and epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot. The Divide plots parallel character narratives together with an archive spine, juxtaposing news reports from 1979 to the present day, with the outcomes of those economic decisions and the thinking that made them possible. The lines are clearly drawn between the big picture and the very personal, producing a new and more human way of depicting the true toll of rising inequality.

Directed and produced by: Katharine Round
Executive producer: Christopher Hird
Runtime: 74′
Country: United Kingdom/Lebanon/Switzerland

When Barack Obama was elected, the world cheered. Not only was he the first African-American President, he inspired hope and trust – everywhere. His promises – to end the war in Iraq, close Guantanamo, fight climate change, reform American healthcare – seemed to mark a new era of civility and hope. What happened instead was the worst economic collapse in living memory, a Republican opposition that refused any sort of cooperation, and the rise of a populist anti-government Tea Party.

In this landmark series by Norma Percy, Brian Lapping and Paul Mitchell, four one-hour programmes look at how he brought America out of the Great Recession; how his triumphant reform of America’s healthcare system was followed by defeat at the polls at the hands of the Tea Party; the failure to close Guantanamo, the Arab Spring and the inside story of the secret nuclear negotiations with Iran; the struggle for gun control and his response to the racial unrest of Ferguson.

With unprecedented access and contribution from a number of key players within the administration, Inside Obama’s White House captures key moments when policy was made.

Jonathan Freedland is a weekly columnist and writer for the Guardian. A former Washington correspondent who has covered every US presidential election since 1992, he is also a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and presents BBC Radio 4’s contemporary history series, The Long View. In 2014 he was awarded the Orwell special prize for journalism. He has also published eight books including six bestselling thrillers, the latest being The 3rd Woman. He tweets @freedland.

Producer/Director: Paul Mitchell
Executive Producer: Brian Lapping
Series Producer: Norma Percy
Country: United Kingdom/USA
Runtime: 60′