The highly respected Al Jazeera investigation teamed up with WikiLeaks to delve into a complex and corrupt system through the anatomy of bribery. The film weaves a disturbing story involving senior African government officials, large multinational corporations and the illegal transfer of millions of dollars for political support.
The company in question is Samherji, a large fishing company based in Iceland. The company has been accused of looting Africa’s natural resources for personal financial gain. They are allowed to do this by paying large sums of money to Namibia’s cabinet members and other high-ranking officials, including the fisheries and justice ministers. These clandestine deals effectively enrich the pockets of the powerful while only exacerbating the poverty of one-fifth of Namibia’s population.
The scandal first came to light when a brave former Samherji employee turned whistleblower couldn’t keep quiet about their corrupt practices. His instructions during his tenure at the company were clear: Absolutely get African fishing rights by any means necessary, including bribing government officials. After he broke up with the company, he sent WikiLeaks a series of inflammatory documents to back up his claims, which the Al Jazeera filmmakers used as the basis for their own investigation throughout the film.
African fisheries are said to be highly regulated and designed to benefit the Namibian economy and its people. Using undercover agents and hidden camera footage, the filmmaker’s investigation uncovers an operation to extort profits from the region’s citizens and to enrich officials and foreign corporations with those profits.
Videos taken during the investigation present and preserve irrefutable evidence of this corruption. Along the way, investigators spent time talking to several of the defendants and gaining insight into the practices by speaking with the whistleblowers who were the first to speak out about their corrupt practices.
Bribery profiling is often tough, hardworking and courageous investigative work for Al Jazeera.
