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MONEY & CORRUPTION

Offshore accounts, market manipulation, bailouts for the rich, and a financial system designed to extract wealth from the many to the few.

The global financial system operates on secrecy, and the evidence is overwhelming. The Panama Papers and Pandora Papers exposed how world leaders, billionaires, and corporations hide trillions in offshore accounts to evade taxes. The 2008 financial crisis revealed how Wall Street banks gambled with the economy and received taxpayer-funded bailouts while millions lost their homes. The FTX crypto fraud showed how billions in customer funds simply vanished under a web of fake accounting. From Federal Reserve policy decisions that benefit the wealthy to pharmaceutical companies charging thousands for life-saving drugs — this category follows the money through court documents, leaked financial records, SEC filings, and investigative reporting.

7 topics · 22 sources · 19 connections

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Panama & Pandora Papers

ACTIVE

Two massive document leaks — 11.5 million files from Mossack Fonseca and 11.9 million from 14 other firms — exposed how the world's wealthiest use offshore structures to hide assets and evade taxes.

88/100

1 sections

Lobbying & Dark Money

ACTIVE

The US lobbying industry spends over $4 billion per year purchasing legislative outcomes. Combined with post-Citizens United dark money, it has created a system where the formal democratic process is a performance layer over a private market for policy.

86/100

1 sections

FTX & Crypto Fraud

ACTIVE

Sam Bankman-Fried built a $32 billion crypto empire, stole $8 billion in customer funds, donated $100 million to politicians, and was convicted on seven federal fraud counts — all by age 31.

82/100

1 sections

Congressional Insider Trading

ACTIVE

Members of Congress and their families trade stocks in industries they regulate, with access to non-public information. The STOCK Act of 2012 was supposed to stop this. It didn't — it just required disclosure. And the disclosures show the trading continues.

80/100

1 sections

Big Pharma Pricing

ACTIVE

The pharmaceutical industry is the #1 lobbying spender in Washington. Insulin costs $3 to manufacture and sells for $300+. Patent gaming keeps drug prices high while generic competition is blocked for decades.

77/100

1 sections

Federal Reserve System

DEVELOPING

The Federal Reserve, America's central bank, operates with limited congressional oversight. A 2011 GAO audit revealed $16 trillion in emergency loans made during the 2008 crisis — more than the entire US GDP.

74/100

1 sections

2008 Financial Crisis

HISTORICAL

Wall Street banks packaged toxic mortgages into complex securities, rating agencies stamped them AAA, and when the house of cards collapsed, taxpayers paid $700 billion in bailouts. Virtually no executives went to prison.

70/100

1 sections