Five years after Cynthia O’Murchú and I first revealed the depths of Shard Capital’s entanglements with Lars Windhorst, the London brokerage’s former chief executive James Lewis had been banned by the FCA

on.ft.com/4abTmxC

Asda described its £2bn takeover of petrol stations from its owners as “leverage neutral”

But that’s because they loaded the supermarket with liabilities that do not count towards headline debt figures, such as borrowing against ground rent from Macquarie
on.ft.com/3UJ72vH

The largest western banks in Russia paid the Kremlin more than €800mn in taxes last year, a fourfold increase on prewar levels, despite promises to minimise their exposure after the invasion of Ukraine.

With Anastasia Stognei.
on.ft.com/3UBv6k3

Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International recently posted dozens of ads for Russia-based jobs indicating ambitious plans to grow in the country, contradicting its official pledge to exit the market.

With Chris Cook, Owen Walker & Sam Jones
on.ft.com/3JF1T1z

On Halloween 2018, a London detective investigating a Chinese takeaway worker stumbled on billions of pounds worth of bitcoin in a Hampstead mansion ft.com/content/0bc35b…

My and Eri Sugiura's long read on an extraordinary tale of crime, crypto and a woman in way over her head

Here's a vintage example of FOI vandalism I've been dealing with.

The department: David Cameron’s Foreign Office.
The subject: David Cameron’s lobbying career.

🧵

UK fines 123 offshore companies for failing to comply with landmark transparency legislation
ft.com/content/e63098…

When you follow the money, you don’t where it’s going to take you.

Pulling on a thread at a Victoria plc, a royal carpet maker backed by the Kochs, led me to an alleged ex-gang member who survived a drive-by shooting.

Read the full yarn here 👇🏻 ft.com/content/49b2d1…

Returned to my favourite genre: media criticism disguised as business journalism disguised as pop-culture journalism. This time, YOU get to pretend to be a journalist! 🪄

Why is it so hard to work out how much money Taylor Swift is making? ft.com/content/630a62…

Rachel Reeves plagiarism row puts publishers under scrutiny on.ft.com/3FCTCZC

The new book from Rachel Reeves cuts and pastes from Wikipedia, The Guardian, a fellow MP and other unacknowledged sources in at least 20 examples of apparent plagiarism. Scoop from Soumaya Keynes, George Parker, Rafe Uddin, Euan Healy, Stephanie Stacey ft.com/content/e4c190…

The UK high street heist: how retailers are battling a crime wave on.ft.com/3RxDyzQ

Porous concrete detected at Heathrow and Gatwick airports on.ft.com/3r4BSmy