Tom Burgis

The road to publishing Tom Burgis's long read, "How oligarchs took on the UK fraud squad – and won", began in 2016, with the discovery of a burned out-car in Johannesburg. Inside was the body of a mining industry geologist. The attempts to establish what had befallen him led Burgis to a vast mining deal involving what was, at the time, a FTSE-100 multinational corporation listed on the London Stock Exchange. Founded by oligarchs from the former Soviet Union, ENRC is a global resources empire – one that jealously guards its secrets.

Burgis’s investigation reveals how the oligarchs and their armies of City lawyers and spies took on and crushed the UK’s elite financial crime agency. After a 10-year investigation into suspected fraud and corruption related to ENRC, in 2023 the Serious Fraud Office walked away without bringing charges. It blamed “insufficient admissible evidence”.

In this gripping and meticulous article, Burgis reveals a whole new strand of alleged wrongdoing that has never before been reported – a money trail that runs from a South African mine to a mansion in Mayfair. The evidence raises serious questions. Yet by exposing the rot in the City legal system, the oligarchs turned the tables on the SFO. The upshot is that UK taxpayers will have to pay as much as a quarter of a billion pounds to a company whose main backers are sanctioned Russian banks.

During his 15 years of reporting on the ENRC saga, across four continents, Burgis has faced fierce resistance including legal action, surveillance and concerted attempts to identify and intimidate sources. Given all these obstacles and the complexity of the material, this long read was the most challenging Burgis has ever written. Told like a thriller, with a vivid cast of characters, this story lays bare the UK’s place in a new world order where sheer force of money can overpower the rule of law.

After it was published, the article was commended in parliament. Burgis's reporting has been followed up by law enforcement agencies in multiple countries, and he was invited to brief senior UK law enforcement officers on the ENRC saga and its consequences.