Release: Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit (163 GB)

More than 890,000 internal records from the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit. The documents form the core of the SwaziSecrets investigation, and are now public

Mswati III King of Eswatini by Kollmeierf is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

One of the last countries on Earth with an absolute monarchy, Eswatini is a nation of 1.2 million people, most living in extreme poverty. It is becoming a thriving conduit for international money laundering, according to research from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists or ICIJ.

During a two year embargo, the ICIJ worked with regional journalists and analyzed nearly 900,000 internal records from the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit, including bank records, police investigation reports, court affidavits and transcripts, and confidential exchanges between government agencies. The files also include details about banks in that have facilitated financial transactions for entities suspected of criminal activity.

The team of 38 journalists from 11 countries included outlets like Open Secrets, amaBhungane, and The Africa Report. The network researched the trove of documents from DDoSecrets, originally from the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit or FIU. The FIU is tasked with monitoring financial law compliance in the country.

The investigation uncovered how King Mswati III and his large family have stakes in all the country’s major businesses, how a bank founded by a bankrupt Canadian hotelier that has no clients continues to operate, how gold refineries with no refineries replaced farms with nothing, and how select individuals boasting of royal connections are handsomely rewarded.

When first announced, the records were in our reserved category. As of last week, DDoSecrets has opened access to the SwaziSecrets archive, making all the data publicly available.

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