Frederik Obermaier
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Frederik Obermaier (born 1 March 1984) is a German investigative journalist for the
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
-based newspaper, ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...
'', and author. Together with his colleague
Bastian Obermayer Bastian Obermayer (born 10 December 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source as well ...
in 2016 he initiated and coordinated the
Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...
-revelations.


Works

Frederik Obermaier's work focuses largely on corruption and tax-havens as well as intelligence services, illicit arms deals and extremism from the far-right to Islamist groups. Together with a group of journalists from
Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...
and German public broadcaster
Norddeutscher Rundfunk Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; ''Northern German Broadcasting'') is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, M ...
he uncovered Germany's role in the US drone war, especially the role of the airbase in Ramstein. Obermaier and his colleagues also revealed that the British intelligence service
GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
had access to the communication-cables TAT-14, Atlantic Crossing 1, Circe North, Circe South, Flag Atlantic-1, Flag Europa-Asia, SeaMeWe-3 and SeaMeWe-4, Solas, UK France 3, UK Netherlands-14, Ulysses, Yellow and the Pan European Crossing.


Panama Papers

To an unknown date a source who called itself
John Doe John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often ...
leaked the documents 11.5 million internal documents created by Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider
Mossack Fonseca Mossack Fonseca & Co. () was a Panamanian law firm and Corporate services, corporate service provider.Bastian Obermayer Bastian Obermayer (born 10 December 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source as well ...
. "My life is in danger", he told them. In a 6 May statement, John Doe cited income inequality, and said he leaked the documents "simply because I understood enough about their contents to realise the scale of the injustices they described". He added that he has never worked for any government or intelligence agency and expressed willingness to help prosecutors. The two journalist shared the documents with the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with pe ...
. Journalists from 107 media organizations in 80 countries analyzed documents detailing the operations of the law firm. After more than a year of analysis, the first news stories were published on 3 April 2016. Obermaier and Obermayer in April 2016 also published the best selling book "Panama Papers" about their experiences with John Doe and the following worldwide revelations. It was translated to more than ten languages. In 2016
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
acquired the exclusive film rights to the book.


Bahamas-Leaks

After
Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...
an unknown source handed over internal data from the national corporate registry of the
Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
to Frederik Obermaier and
Bastian Obermayer Bastian Obermayer (born 10 December 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source as well ...
. The 38 gigabyte of data show that several current and former heads of state and government and high-ranking politicians, including former EU Commissioner
Neelie Kroes Neelie Kroes (; born 19 July 1941) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businessperson who served as European Commissioner from 22 November 2004 to 1 November 2014. Kroes studied Economics at t ...
; Colombia's former mining minister Carlos Caballero Argáez;
Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Mohammed bin Thani Al Thani ( ar, حمد بن جاسم بن جبر آل ثاني; born 1959), also known informally by his initials HBJ, is a Qatari politician. He was the Prime Minister of Qatar from 3 April ...
, the former prime minister of Qatar; and Angola's vice-president,
Manuel Domingos Vicente Manuel Domingos Vicente (born 15 May 1956) is an Angolan politician who served as the vice president of Angola between September 2012 and September 2017. Previously he was chief executive officer of Sonangol, Angola's state oil company, from 199 ...
were respectively are directors, secretaries, or presidents of Bahamian companies.


Paradise Papers

Frederik Obermaier and his colleague
Bastian Obermayer Bastian Obermayer (born 10 December 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source as well ...
also initiated the
Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...
, which were published on 5 November 2017. The trove of 13,5 million records revealed ties between Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's billionaire commerce secretary
Wilbur Ross Wilbur Louis Ross Jr. (born November 28, 1937) is an American businessman who served as the 39th United States Secretary of Commerce from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Ross was previously chairman and chief executive officer ...
, the hidden fortune of Canadian prime minister
Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
's chief fundraiser Stephen Bronfman and the offshore dealings of Queen
Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
.


Ibiza affair

Frederik Obermaier was part of a joint investigative effort of ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...
'' and ''
Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' which, in May 2019, revealed that Austria's Vice Chancellor
Heinz-Christian Strache Heinz-Christian Strache (; born 12 June 1969) is an Austrian politician and dental technician who served as Vice-Chancellor of Austria from 2017 to 2019 before resigning owing to his involvement in the Ibiza affair. He was also Minister of Civi ...
of the far-right Freedom Party had – during a vacation on Ibiza in July 2017 – promised government contracts to a woman claiming to be a Russian millionaire. Strache resigned over the revelation; Chancellor
Sebastian Kurz Sebastian Kurz (; born 27 August 1986) is a former Austrian politician who twice served as chancellor of Austria, initially from December 2017 to May 2019 and then a second time from January 2020 to October 2021. Kurz was born and raised in Me ...
called for a snap election.


Suisse Secrets

After an anonymous source leaked data about thousands of customers of the Swiss Bank
Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...
to Frederik Obermaier and
Bastian Obermayer Bastian Obermayer (born 10 December 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source as well ...
they – together with
OCCRP The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories through ...
– launched the
Suisse Secrets Suisse secrets was a February 2022 leak of details of more than CHF 100 billion (roughly US$108.5bn, €95.5bn or £80bn) held in nominee accounts linked to over 30,000 clients of Credit Suisse, the largest ever leak from a major Swiss bank. ...
-project: an investigation about the dubious customers of Credit Suisse. The leaked data revealed the beneficiaries of more than 100bn Swiss francs held at Credit Suisse – among them: a human trafficker in the Philippines, a Hong Kong stock exchange boss jailed for bribery, an Egypt murderer and executives who looted Venezuela's state oil company, as well as corrupt politicians from Egypt to Ukraine. Several accounts were held by the heads of intelligence agencies or their relatives including figures who worked closely with the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
and some who have been accused of overseeing torture and other human rights abuses.


Awards and honours

Obermaier has received numerous awards, among others the CNN-Award in 2011, the Wächterpreis der Tagespresse and the Helmut Schmidt Prize in 2013. As part of the Panama Papers-team he won – among others – the
George Polk award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the award ...
, the Perfil award and Germany's most prestious journalism prize, the Nannen Prize He was voted, together with his colleagues
Bastian Obermayer Bastian Obermayer (born 10 December 1977) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (SZ) and the reporter who received the Panama Papers from an anonymous source as well ...
and Vanessa Wormer, "German Journalist of the Year 2016". As part of
ICIJ The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 140 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries. It is based in Washington, D.C. with pe ...
's Panama-Papers-team he won the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
2017 in the category "Explanatory Reporting". In 2017 Frederik Obermaier was awarded the renown Nieman-Fellowship at the
University of Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...
.


Publications

* ''Country on the brink – state collapse and the threat of war in the Republic of Yemen'' * ''Kapuzenmänner – The Ku Klux Klan in Germany'' * ''Panama Papers – Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money'' * ''Suisse Secrets – How bankers hid the money of tax evaders, torture generals, dictators and the Catholic Church – with the help of politicians''


References


External links

* * Frederik Obermaier o
Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obermaier, Frederik German journalists German male journalists German newspaper journalists 1984 births Living people Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism winners German investigative journalists 21st-century German journalists Süddeutsche Zeitung people People from Eggenfelden