Judges praised the “tenacity and sensitivity” of Nicole Sadek’s investigation into a mysterious health crisis that upended life in a Kazakh village after the arrival of Big Oil.
Oil and gas tycoon Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of the nation’s former president, declined to comment on the reported negotiations.
A reporter and photographers visited Timur Kulibayev’s sprawling Mediterranean coast estate as part of the “Caspian Cabals” project and discovered plush villas, high security and ambivalent neighbors.
An ICIJ reporter traveled to Kazakhstan, where she found sources eager to share stories of environmental ruin.
Hundreds of millions in payments were made to a firm co-owned by Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of the resource-rich nation’s longtime ruler.
As the wealth of Kazakhstan’s “oil prince” expanded so did his real estate portfolio, which now includes a U.K. mansion once owned by Prince Andrew.
Caspian Cabals exposes how Western companies desperate for new oil reserves catered to Russian power, enriching Putin cronies and Kazakh elites and ignoring corruption risks to keep the oil moving.