Kyiv Post staff writer Vlad Lavrov won a share of the Daniel Pearl Award for his participation in the transnational investigative projectOffshore Crime, Inc.
Lavrov was part of the group of journalists from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Ukraine. The six-month investigative research uncovered organized criminal groups and others which used offshore tax havens to launder money, hide assets and evade taxes.
One of the stories, “Ukraine Goes Offshore,” was published by the Kyiv Post on Nov. 12, 2010. That segment focused on the proliferation of schemes, including legal ones, for evading taxes offshore. Experts estimated that as much as $3 billion of the government’s $30 billion annual budget could be lost in the tax haven of Cyprus alone.
Lavrov was one of the reporters who investigated offshore tax heavens including the U.S. state of Delaware, the Cayman Islands, Seychelles, New Zealand, Romania and Ukraine.
In order to uncover the underlying illegal activity the journalists posed as businessmen seeking services.
In meetings and online consultations, the reporters received detailed advice on avoiding paying taxes through offshore mechanisms.
The Daniel Pearl Award is a biannual prize that is given out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
This award specifically aims to distinguish investigative reporters who cooperate across the borders of various countries.
Pearl was an American journalist who worked with the Wall Street Journal before he was kidnapped and later killed by Al-Qaeda after he went to Pakistan with an investigative mission.
Romanian journalist Paul Cristian Radu coordinated the winning team of reporters, which also included Mihai Munteanu (Romania), Beth Kampschror (United States), Stanimir Vaglenov (Bulgaria), Tamas Bodoky (Hungary), and Stevan Dojcinovic (Serbia). Drew Sullivan (US) and Rosemary Armao (United States) edited the project.
The Ukrainian journalist received his award at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference that took place in Kyiv on Oct. 13-16.
Other finalists of the 2011 competition included investigations on the Tamiflu drug scheme, human trafficking in Latin America, problems of the foreign employees at the American bases in Afghanistan and Iraq, crimes of the Peace Corps, and piracy.
Lavrov won in the category of non-US news outlets.
The prize for US outlets went to Mimi Chakarova and the Center for Investigative Reporting for “The Price of Sex,” a documentary exposing the shadowy world of sex trafficking from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Western Europe. More information about the documentary can be found here: http://priceofsex.org/
Awards judge Ginger Thompson of The New York Times said: “Her attention to detail and dignity in her portrayals of victims and the breathtaking courage she showed during her forays into the criminal underworld should serve as the professional standard to which all investigative reporters aspire.”
The Kyiv Post’s Vlad Lavrov won the Daniel Pearl Award in the non-US category, while Mimi Chakarova won in the US category for her documentary “The Price of Sex.”
