Two New York Times reporters spent several months learning the intricacies of a wide-reaching web of scammers.
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For months, Selam Gebrekidan, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, would stare at a maze of handwritten diagrams, drawings and charts on a wall inside her Hong Kong apartment. She was trying to piece together how exactly one of the world’s biggest money laundering networks operates.
“I needed a visual aid as I was breaking it down into steps,” she explained. Her effort was put to good use: This week, Ms. Gebrekidan and Joy Dong, a reporter-researcher who covers China for The Times, published a complex investigation that provides an inside look at how some scammers launder money and get away with it. For their article, Ms. Gebrekidan and Ms. Dong spoke to nearly a half-dozen scammers and their launderers, and then described each step of the laundering process.
“We wanted to make the story accessible for readers,” Ms. Gebrekidan said of the investigation, which focuses on a single laundering network in Southeast Asia. “But first we had to understand the complexities ourselves.”
In a video call from Hong Kong, Ms. Gebrekidan and Ms. Dong discussed interviewing the scammers and money launderers for their article and the questions still top of mind for them. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
What initially led you to pursue this story?
SELAM GEBREKIDAN I started looking into money laundering broadly about nine months ago. Joy and I wanted to understand how the criminal underworld works.
We had received tips that the city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, like a number of other casino hubs in that region, was a hot spot for scamming and money laundering, especially after the pandemic. When I visited, I was struck by the number of unfinished buildings on every street. The upper floors in these empty buildings had fluorescent lights on, all night long. I kept thinking: Who is up there? And what are they doing?