We all know that offshore areas of financial secrecy exist. In this episode, we’re going to take a look at the origin story of one of them. It’s a story that will make you question the caricature you probably have in your head about why shadowy offshore economies develop. And it’s a story that involves, quite improbably, seabirds that made people rich, a failed musical about Leonardo Da Vinci….and a shack worth a billion dollars.
You may not have heard of it, but you can rest assured that terrorists, Russian mobsters, and rich oligarchs trying to set up their own banks know its name. This is a tale of greed, corruption, environmental destruction, and how – and why – the Davids of the globe can become Goliaths of illicit finance.
This episode features interviews with Jack Hitt, an award-winning journalist; Selena Shannon, a former journalist and a senior producer at Audiocraft; and Lisa Hollander, a former actress who starred in a doomed musical about Leonardo Da Vinci’s love life, funded by seagull droppings on a little island in the Pacific that you’ve probably never heard of.
To read Jack’s New York Times reporting about Nauru from 1999, click here. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/10/magazine/the-billion-dollar-shack.html
And for a review of the Leonardo Da Vinci musical published in 1993, go to this link:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/fertiliser-island-scents-musical-success-first-night-leonardo-1489451.html
Pre order Brian's book - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Corruptible/Brian-Klaas/9781982154097
Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/powercorrupts
The Dark Side of AI
Space Wars
Loot
Corruptible: Audiobook Excerpt
Does Power Corrupt?
War Criminal or Victim?
Walk the Plank
The Invisible Hook
Golden Handcuffs
Hitman for Hire
Fake IDs
Do Not Disturb
Click Here To Kill Everybody
The Shell Game
Power Corrupts Season 3: Returning 31st August 2021
Biological Weapons
Revolutions
Pandemics
Catastrophic Miscalculation
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