Tracking the loot 101

EVERY YEAR, writes PCIJ’s founding Executive Director Sheila Coronel, over a trillion dollars, the equivalent of more than 45 trillion pesos, flow illicitly out of the world’s economies. These monies, stashed away by politicians and crooked businessmen and business-minded crooks, are the proceeds from an underground economy thriving on corruption and crime.

In her latest entry in her investigative reporting blog Watchdog-Watcher, Coronel gives some tips on how to track down these proceeds. To be sure, an investigative reporter would have a difficult time looking for the paper and electronic trail for all these trillions. On the other hand, while most crooks are very careful in how they steal the money, a lot of them can get quite careless in how they spend it.

And tracking and tracing the spending end of the trail is often the easier, and more colorful route.

Coronel’s tips on how to track the loot will be presented before the annual conference of the Investigative Reporters and Editors in Boston this year. For a quick read of her blog entry, which serves as a preview of her presentation, just click here.