INSIDE ICIJ
‘I couldn’t do it alone’: Collaborating on Luanda Leaks
We speak with three investigative reporters who worked on Luanda Leaks about the importance of collaboration on this global story.
Karlijn Kuijpers, from the Netherlands, Jacob Borg, from Malta and Axcel Chenney, from Mauritius, were three investigative reporters on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Luanda Leaks investigation.
Together with more than 120 journalists, these reporters exposed the true story of how Africa’s richest woman – Isabel dos Santos – made her fortune. Working across borders, and continents, for more than eight months the reporters examined more than 715,000 files and pursued story leads.
“Every project she’s involved in goes from one country to the other. I couldn’t do it alone,” Kuijpers told us.
Reporters traveled to Angola, interviewed dozens of people, including former dos Santos employees and financial experts, and they pored over hundreds of pages of additional documents, including confidential audits, ethics codes, real estate records and invoices from the Angolan state oil company.