TRACE Foundation Announces 2024 Prize for Investigative Reporting Winners

ANNAPOLIS, Md., June 13, 2024 -- The TRACE Foundation, a non-profit organization established to support projects that encourage greater commercial transparency, today announced the winners of the 2024 TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting. The annual award and cash prize recognizes journalism that uncovers business bribery or related financial crime.

Mahmoud Elsobky won the Prize for his investigative piece, “Syrian Airline, Haftar’s Army Profit from Human Smuggling.” This undercover project, supported by RIJ and published in the New Arab, exposes a network profiting off desperate migrants seeking refuge in Europe, bringing to light smuggling networks and the involvement of a private Syrian airline and a Libyan military authority.

"With all the challenges and risks I encountered during this investigation, I feel rewarded that this effort has been recognized with the prestigious TRACE award. This acknowledgment inspires me to persist in my pursuit of exposing illegal financial activities and corruption in my future cross-border investigations,” said Mahmoud Elsobky. ''Winning the TRACE prize will help bring attention to the large amounts of money gained by human traffickers and corrupt officials in the Middle East and North Africa. These individuals profit from the struggles and hardships of illegal migrants who flee their countries due to war or economic hardship. Shedding light on this issue is crucial in the fight against illicit finance and corruption.''

The second recipient of the 2024 TRACE Prize is a team of journalists from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in collaboration with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and Paper Trail Media, for the extensive report “Cyprus Confidential.” This 10-part series documents the sweeping degree to which the European Union has allowed member-state Cyprus to become a haven for financial misbehavior.

An honorable mention went to a team of journalists for their piece “Hawala: The Bankers of Irregular Migration” which explores and exposes the network of small businesses that sustain the world of migrants, but also endanger them.

A second honorable mention went to Roman Romanovskiy and Lizaveta Tsybulina with Istories Media for their piece “Why Russian Airplanes Keep Flying Despite the Imposed Sanctions” which explores the illegal shipments of spare parts of airplanes to Russia, continuing in the face of US sanctions imposed to paralyze Russian aviation.

“The TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting, now in its ninth year, highlights and celebrates the challenging, and often dangerous, work that investigative journalists undertake to expose extreme financial crime, often linked to human rights violations,” according to TRACE President, Alexandra Wrage. “Tasked with revealing corruption at the highest levels of commercial institutions, these investigative journalists often invest hundreds of hours and expose themselves to great personal risk to hold individuals and organizations accountable.  Their work advances the global effort towards greater transparency and good governance.”

This year’s judging panel included William Gumede, Diana B. Henriques, Rosebell Kagumire, Peter Klein, Donatella Lorch, Jorge Luis Sierra, and Amjad Tadros.

The application for the 2025 TRACE Prize for “Investigative Reporting: Uncovering Commercial Bribery” will open in October of 2024. You can view the application requirements and read about past winners here. If you have questions, please contact Emma Rathmann at [email protected].

About the TRACE Foundation

The TRACE Foundation was established to promote, support and fund research, investigative journalism, publications, videos and related projects that encourage greater commercial transparency and advance anti-bribery education. For more information, visit www.TRACEinternational.org/trace-foundation