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01 / Terminal Investigation
The bug in the system
was always human.
Keynote spectacles. Algorithmic monopolies. The surveillance apparatus operating in the background. Explore the verified scandals, anti-competitive pacts, labor abuses, and engineering disasters behind the technology industry.
02 / Daily Briefing
Synchronized UTC selection.
Rotates daily across the archive.
03 / The Archive
491 stories indexed
Filter by sector or keyword.
Fraud & Cover-Ups1980s
National Women’s Hospital; Herb Green’s carcinoma-in-situ management; Ron Jones
At National Women’s Hospital in Auckland, Associate Professor Herb Green treated carcinoma in situ (CIS) of the cervix as a benign condition and generally did not provide the treatment then accepted for a precancerous lesion. After joining the hospital in 1973, obstetrician and gynaecologist Ron Jones challenged that approach with pathologist Jock McLean and specialist Bill McIndoe. Their 1984 paper, “The invasive potential of carcinoma in situ of the cervix,” documented women under Green’s care who later developed invasive cervical cancer; some died. The source says the patients had not consented to what became known as Green’s “experiment.” The findings were initially ignored by much of the medical establishment. Journalists Sandra Coney and Phillida Bunkle brought the case to public attention in a 1987 Metro article, prompting the Cartwright Inquiry, led by Silvia Cartwright. The inquiry found the treatment unethical and concluded that patients’ consent had not been obtained. Jones faced professional ostracism, while later analyses of roughly 45 years of patient records by Jones and colleagues David Skegg and Charlotte Paul supported CIS as a cancer precursor and linked limited treatment to invasive disease. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued a public apology in 2017; the historical interpretation remains contested by author Linda Bryder, who argued in a 2009 book that there was no experiment and that the inquiry was wrong.
Surveillance & Privacy1960s–2020s
Moroccan DST Cab-1 and Ahmed al-Boukhari
Ahmed al-Boukhari, a former agent of Cab-1, the political cell of Morocco’s internal intelligence service DST, claimed he processed information connected to the 1960s abduction and murder of dissident Mehdi Ben Barka. Boukhari said CIA personnel, including an alleged Colonel Martin, were involved and that Ben Barka’s body was secretly taken to Morocco and dissolved in acid. He acknowledged he was not present at the crime scene, and Moroccan pro-government newspapers disputed his account, describing him as a fraud and liar; the claims therefore remain contested rather than established fact. Boukhari published Le Secret and Raisons d’état, the latter in 2005, describing DST operations and repression of socialist-left dissidents from the 1960s through the 1980s. Former DST employees and Interior Ministry officials named in his books filed defamation suits, while authorities also pursued him over ordinary matters including dishonoured cheques—actions he and supporters characterized as harassment. Morocco refused his passport request in 2001, preventing him from testifying in France; after an administrative lawsuit, he received a passport in early 2006. Boukhari died in Casablanca on 16 February 2025, leaving his disclosures as a rare insider account of alleged state repression, but not a definitive judicial resolution of the Ben Barka affair.
Fraud & Cover-Ups2000s–2010s
LGT Group, Liechtenstein trusts, and Heinrich Kieber
The 2008 Liechtenstein tax affair began after bank computer technician Heinrich Kieber sold confidential LGT Group account data to Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) in 2006. Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance reportedly paid Kieber €4.2 million for the information, which was transferred to tax investigators in Wuppertal. The data indicated that hundreds of German residents may have routed millions of euros through anonymous Liechtenstein trusts to evade taxes. On February 14, 2008, authorities raided the home of Klaus Zumwinkel, chief executive of Deutsche Post AG, over alleged tax evasion of about €1 million; he resigned under government pressure. The disclosures triggered raids and investigations across Germany and prompted Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, France and other governments to seek access to the account data. A 2008 U.S. Senate investigation chaired by Senator Carl Levin described LGT and UBS as contributing to a “culture of secrecy and deception,” and estimated that offshore tax havens deprived the U.S. Treasury of up to $100 billion annually, though those figures concerned the broader offshore system. The affair also raised legal and ethical questions because the evidence had been stolen; Liechtenstein pursued charges against unknown perpetrators, while Germany declined judicial assistance in 2009. On March 12, 2009, Liechtenstein pledged OECD transparency reforms, and in 2010 its government agreed to pay Germany a €50 million fine. The country later signed dozens of tax-information agreements.
Surveillance & Privacy2007
Lato Lapsa; Litigation Kitchen; Latvian judiciary
In 2007, Latvian journalist and Pietiek.com founder Lato Lapsa published Litigation Kitchen, a book containing transcripts he said came from telephone conversations allegedly wiretapped in lawyer Andris Grutups’s office between 1998 and 2000. The material accused judges of discussing cases outside court and of being influenced by political and business interests, raising questions about the integrity of judicial proceedings and the legality of the surveillance. The allegations were serious enough to prompt a special parliamentary commission. According to the source, the commission’s interim report did not confirm the specific claims, although it acknowledged improvements in the judiciary; three judges resigned and no criminal charges were filed. The episode remains a contested disclosure rather than a verified institutional wiretapping scandal: Lapsa’s publication and the political fallout are documented, but the alleged recordings and misconduct were not conclusively established by the inquiry.
Fraud & Cover-Ups1980s
Toshiba Machine, Kongsberg Gruppen, Itochu, and CoCom-controlled machine tools
In October 1980, the KGB sought machinery capable of producing large-vessel propeller screws. Wako Koeki connected the request to Toshiba Machine, and negotiations began in December 1980. The companies arranged exports of four nine-axis and four five-axis machine tools, equipment restricted by the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom). Kongsberg Gruppen obtained permission for a numerical-control machine by representing it as a two-axis tool; the equipment and later its software were shipped through Japan to the Soviet Union. Shipments reached Leningrad in 1983, and Hitori Kumagai installed machines at the Baltic Shipyard in December 1983 and December 1984. Kumagai resigned from Wako in 1985 and reported the exports to Japanese authorities and CoCom in a December 1985 letter, attaching documentation and his contact information. Japan’s foreign, trade, finance, police, and defense authorities met in January 1986, but the government, Itochu, Toshiba, and affiliated companies denied the allegations until 1987. After Norway investigated at U.S. request in January 1987, Japanese media reported the nine-axis violation on April 30 and the five-axis violation on June 18; the source states that the statute of limitations had already expired. The episode exposed failures in export-control enforcement and government disclosure, and became known as the Toshiba–Kongsberg scandal.
Platform Scandals2020s
GaaSyy YouTube channel; Yoshikazu Higashitani
Yoshikazu Higashitani, known online as GaaSyy, built a YouTube audience of approximately 1.3 million subscribers in 2022 by broadcasting allegations about Japanese entertainers, including claims connected to the Johnny Kitagawa sexual-abuse scandal. The channel was shut down in July 2022. His visibility nevertheless helped him win a House of Councillors seat for the NHK Party with more than 287,000 votes, despite campaigning from Dubai and pledging to work from overseas. Higashitani skipped every parliamentary session, citing fears of prosecution over allegations involving defamation, intimidation, and obstruction of business. After repeated disciplinary action, the House of Councillors expelled him on March 15, 2023, by a vote of 235–1—the first expulsion in Japan’s upper house in more than 70 years and the first based on non-attendance. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department sought an arrest warrant on March 16, issued an international warrant through Interpol on April 14, and arrested him at Narita Airport on June 4. The Tokyo District Court convicted him on March 14, 2024, for habitual intimidation and forcible obstruction of business, imposing a three-year suspended prison sentence.
04 / Integration & SDK
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