Top stories –
Key Jersey and UK stories:
10.10.12
ALL MY FORTUNE STORIES:
https://fortune.com/author/leah-mcgrath-goodman/
5.22.14
Is Wall Street Pulling A Fast One?
https://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/30/wall-street-pulling-fast-one-251784.html
12.15.16
Bitcoin is Being Monitored by an Increasingly Wary U.S. Government
9.18.16
Health Fallout from 9/11 on Par with Chernobyl
9.11.17
9/11 Children: Scientists Find Toxins in Their Baby Teeth
4.4.16
Panama Papers: ‘This is Just the Beginning’
https://www.newsweek.com/panama-papers-just-beginning-443978
5.9.16
Goldman Sachs and Other Big Banks Abound in Panama Papers Database
Goldman Sachs and Other Big American Banks Abound in New Panama Papers Database
Facing pressure to disclose more information on how the world’s wealthiest people may be avoiding their taxes, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung released on Monday a searchable database of the Panama Papers, detailing names, banks, trusts and other entities participating in offshore tax shelters.
Panama Papers: What Stanley Kubrick Can Teach You About Tax Shelters
Stanley Kubrick once wrote the script to a film called I Stole 16 Million Dollars that was rejected by Kirk Douglas as badly written and never got made. Because of the Panama Papers, we now know that Kubrick’s millions were concealed in tax shelters, along with the riches of hundreds of other Americans.
Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca Was a Tax Shelter Nobody
“There is something very simple that people are missing about the Panama Papers leak,” says James Henry, managing director at Sag Harbor Group, a consultancy that specializes in economic, legal and tax strategies in Sag Harbor, New York. “And that is that Mossack Fonseca was a gritty little law firm in Panama doing grunt work, with dingy little storefronts all over the world.
As Man-Made Earthquakes Thunder Through Oklahoma, Residents Get Innovative With the Law
In Oklahoma, a stone or brick home might save you from a tornado. But it might kill you if there’s an earthquake—and the Dills, who live in the one-story stone-and-mortar farmhouse with their five dogs, have been overwhelmed with quakes.
Why Volkswagen Cheated
In December 10, Volkswagen Chairman Hans-Dieter Pötsch made a public admission: A group of the company’s engineers decided to cheat on emissions tests in 2005 because they couldn’t find a technical solution within the company’s “time frame and budget” to build diesel engines that would meet U.S. emissions standards. When the engineers did find a solution, he said, they chose to keep on cheating, rather than employ it.
The Lost U.K. Child Abuse Testimonies
The Lost U.K. Child Abuse TestimoniesLeah McGrath Goodman Newsweek November 4, 2015nvestigators probing thousands of allegations of child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom set up a website this past summer to gather evidence. They invited...
As Wealth Inequality Soars, One City Shows the Way
As Wealth Inequality Soars, One City Shows the Way Leah McGrath GoodmanNewsweekSeptember 24, 2015Traffic travels under a sign on Washington Boulevard in Ogden, Utah, August 17. The city, together with its neighboring communities, has the narrowest wealth gap among...
Survivors Question Role of U.K. Home Office in Child Abuse Inquiry
Survivors Question Role of U.K. Home Office in Child Abuse InquiryLeah McGrath GoodmanNewsweekAugust 18, 2015fter years of horrifying revelations about sexual abuse of children by people of power and influence, Britain called in a judge from New...
Fifty Shades of Amish: A Strange Genre of the Romance Novel
uke sucked in his breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, I'm just going to flat out ask you. What's it take to get to first base with you, Nora? You've been deflecting my —" "What do you consider first base?" The wide-eyed expression on Nora's face made Luke kick...
Fifty Shades of Amish: A Strange Genre of the Romance Novel
uke sucked in his breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, I'm just going to flat out ask you. What's it take to get to first base with you, Nora? You've been deflecting my —" "What do you consider first base?" The wide-eyed expression on Nora's face...
Thousands of Vulnerable Children Go Missing from Britain’s Protective Services
Thousands of Vulnerable Children Go Missing from Britain's Protective ServicesLeah McGrath GoodmanNewsweekMarch 3, 2015any of the child sex abuse scandals that have shocked Britain in recent years involve victims who were supposed to be under the...
A Surprisingly Modern Take on America From a Long-Dead Frenchman
A Surprisingly Modern Take on America From a Long-Dead Frenchman Leah McGrath GoodmanNewsweekJanuary 21, 2015uring a trip to London earlier this month, I happened to pick up a copy of Christian Dior's autobiography, Dior by Dior, recently reprinted...
David Miranda and the Human-Rights Black Hole
In 2013, Miranda filed a lawsuit against the U.K.’s Home Office and the Metropolitan Police Service claiming he was unlawfully detained and interrogated under the Terrorism Act 2000. He also claimed that his right to freedom of expression guaranteed under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) was violated. The U.K.’s High Court of Justice rejected the suit in February 2014, and his case is due to go to appeal in the first half of 2015.
How Does ISIS Fund Its Reign of Terror?
How Does ISIS Fund Its Reign of Terror?Leah McGrath Goodmanwith Janine Di Giovanni & Damien SharkovNewsweekNovember 6, 2014A man refines oil to produce gas and diesel. A micro-industry for fuel refinament has grown up around the desert town of Al Mansura east of...
Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island
Neil McMurray used to be a professional fisherman and crabber—until one of his children was repeatedly bullied in school and he found himself investigating what he began to view as a startling lack of concern for the welfare of children in his tiny island home.
On Writing…And The Point Of It All
One of the first things you learn as a writer is how to lower your expectations, lest you self-immolate. Then, there's the (very gradual) acceptance that your taste for great, great literature clearly exceeds your abilities...followed by a lifelong struggle to rectify...
How Washington Opened the Floodgates to Online Poker, Dealing Parents a Bad Hand
How Washington Opened the Floodgates to Online Poker, Dealing Parents a Bad HandLeah McGrath GoodmanNewsweekAugust 14, 2014I n 2007, the head of the FBI's Cyber Crime Fraud unit, Leslie Bryant, issued a stern warning to Americans: "You can go to Vegas. You can go to...
The Art of Financial Warfare: How the West is Pushing Putin’s Buttons
The Art of Financial Warfare: How the West Is Pushing Putin's Buttonswith Lynnley Browning NewsweekApril 4, 2014Dan Saelingerhis story has been updated with Treasury comment on the possibility of sanctions against Putin. "We found out by Twitter,"...
The Face Behind Bitcoin
The Face Behind BitcoinNewsweekMarch 6, 2014Header Image: BEN WISEMANSatoshi Nakamoto stands at the end of his sunbaked driveway looking timorous. And annoyed. He's wearing a rumpled T-shirt, old blue jeans and white gym socks, without shoes, like he has left the...
Inside the World’s Top Offshore Tax Shelter
Inside the World's Top Offshore Tax ShelterNewsweek January 17, 2014 An aircraft takes off from Jersey Airport near St Peter, Jersey November 12, 2012. The idyllic aerial view of Jersey belies what is happening below.hona Pitman grew up in a rough...
When Journalism Works
One year ago, a group of financial and political journalists put their heads together to tackle a very onerous task: raise awareness about what is happening on the highly influential island of Jersey – the largest of the Channel Islands, a global tax shelter of some...
We Did It!
This past week, I received my UK visa -- a visa that will last me two years. After 500 days to the day (including leap year) of being banned in the UK, my time in visa purgatory has ended, allowing me to re-enter the UK Common Travel...
Q: A Journalist Traveling to the UK Should Use Which Visa?
A: In my case, the answer is one of these. Can you guess which? Overseas domestic worker - private household £270 UK ancestry £270 Fisherman operating inside UK waters (dependent on contract of employment) £270 Off-shore workers £270 Sole representatives £270 Van der...
Jersey: The Richest Offshore Tax Shelter of Them All
Much has been made of the offshore tax havens of Mitt Romney’s – one of the wealthiest men to ever to run for U.S. president – but few realize the impact of billions of dollars on the tiny islands that stash them.
Celebrating One-Year Anniversary Of My UK Ban
Last picture in Jersey (before being banned)Feeling grateful for supporters in the UK and around the world who have demanded my UK travel ban be overturned. Because of you -- and the help of UK Member of Parliament John Hemming, it expires today. To mark the ban's...
#FreeJersey: A Small Island Fights For Its Democracy
Almost everyone has heard of New Jersey, but few people have heard of "old" Jersey -- the 5-by-9-mile island just off the coast of France that belongs to the British Crown and is best known for its wonderful Jersey cream, cows and potatoes. What it is less known...
Part I: How To Harass A Journalist
My close friends -- Jonathan and Vahni -- flew from London to Jersey this winter to oversee the packing of my things, mostly personal belongings and papers, after the Jersey authorities flagged me for removal at the UK border following my research into the Haut de la...
Picking Your Poison
I was in fifth grade the year of the Chernobyl disaster. I watched with morbid rapture all the great nuke movies -- Silkwood with Meryl Streep, Marshall Brickman's Manhattan Project and Hal Hartley's Trust (which is as amazing as it is impossible to find). I grew...
The Next Generation of Nuclear Energy
The Next Generation of Nuclear EnergyThe Global JournalJuly 6, 2012Since 2001, a project has been underway to determine ‘alternative’ nuclear technologies, conducted by a large group of scientists from over 15 nations. The list of specifications is very demanding, but...
Anarchy In The UK?
The following story was commissioned by The Guardian after I was detained, questioned and banned from the United Kingdom in the wake of research for my next book in the Channel Islands, a $1 trillion tax haven off the coast of England. Many of you have asked what I...
Sunday’s News Shows, Brought To You By Big Oil
SUNDAY'S NEWS SHOWS, BROUGHT TO YOU BY BIG OILJune 4, 2012hile Big Oil is always active during an election season, this year news and radio shows have been particularly shameless about airing back-to-back commercials propounding the virtues of oil...
Oil and Gas Politics: Just The Nonpartisan Facts
I've been writing a series for Fortune in recent weeks tackling questions like, if the U.S. is now selling more petroleum products than it is buying for the first time in more than six decades, why is most of the country paying around $4 a gallon for gas? And if 30%...
A Very Good Six Years
Today marks six years of writing as a free agent. When I hung out my shingle back in 2006, I wasn't sure what it would be like to get up in the morning, walk into the next room (my office) and find my job waiting for me. I wondered, would it be a matter of time before...
Q&A With The Global Journal: Oil Trading And The Casino Syndrome
Happy National Pancake/Leap Year/Week before Super Tuesday Day, all. It has been a turbulent past few months and not just in the oil market. I will get into why very shortly but, for now, let's just say that after a long and dark winter, I am once again available for...
The Boy Wonder At The Heart Of A Disaster
Something to inspire your Friday: The story of a 30-year-old from Sunrise, Florida, who's defying Wall Street -- and not getting hit with a nightstick for it. Who is James Koutoulas and how did this 30-year-old end up leading the charge to recover more than $1 billion...
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS
It met rarely and whined often. It gave up before the actual deadline (Nov. 23). It sought to shear over a trillion off the national budget, but came up with peanuts. It inspired satire in the form of, among other things, superhero cartoons. It was the...
How To Make Someone Else Swallow Your Losses, The Mastercourse
It's official: when a Wall Street powerhouse suddenly collapses and (possibly) more than a billion dollars goes missing, it's no longer just the ordinary taxpayer's problem. Now, it has moved up the chain. Below, the piece I wrote today for Fortune on what traders do...
Good News From Francis, The Lamp Man
Sometimes there's a need to find a good lamp guy. The guy the other lamp guys go to who really knows where it's at. That guy is Francis Nowalk of Pittsburgh (or for those of you who want to get persnickety about it, Bloomfield, PA, the Little Italy of Pittsburgh)....
Final Words From U.S. Bank Watchdog Sheila Bair
Not all banks are the same. A handful of banks -- such as the one that invited me to speak in Austria this autumn-- were not happy to see the multibillion-dollar bailouts, the hue and cry of the public and the resumption of the indefensible bonuses on Wall Street that...
A Certain Stylishness In Hating The Rich
Our national discourse on the nature of wealth has been a good cure for sanity of late. News that a book coming out from the surviving son of Bernard Madoff, mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, elicited comments from readers that could be called...