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will neal

@willneal.bsky.social
2.6K followers 956 following 213 posts

writer, investigative journalist | 2025 Livingston Award finalist, Amnesty Media Award shortlistee | 2024 John Schofield Trust fellow | contact via willneal.org/

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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Pleasure working on this for PunchUp and the Daily Beast in partnership with @scottstedman.bsky.social and Matt Bernardini for The Newsground. www.thedailybeast.com/eric-and-don...
thedailybeast.com
Shady Russian Network Behind Trump Vanity Project Exposed
The president’s sons are trumpeting a new Trump Tower—but not the Moscow oligarch behind one of the companies they named in the deal.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Take it from me — JD Vance really, really doesn’t want you to read this story. www.thedailybeast.com/jd-vance-eye...
thedailybeast.com
JD Vance Eyes Up $9M Mansion Owned by Data Center Tycoon
Vance is looking to rent the luxury property from a businessman making bank on a Trump administration policy push spearheaded by the vice president himself.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
EXCL w/PunchUp and Migrant Insider: DHS is planning a deportation system embedded inside Panama to turn back US-bound migrants before they ever reach the border. Immigration attorneys are calling it "the master plan for global implementation." thepunchup.substack.com/p/trumps-exp...
thepunchup.substack.com
Trump’s Explosive Secret Plan to Stop Migrants Setting Foot on American Soil
EXCLUSIVE: Documents obtained by PunchUp and Migrant Insider reveal a DHS-built deportation system embedded in Panama—and a tiny window before automatic removal.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
EXCL: A prominent GOP attorney tied to Truth Social and the RNC has been hit with a $120M suit alleging fraud, conspiracy and extortion—stemming from his work for agents of the Kurdistan Regional Government who tried to buy surveillance spyware in the US. www.thedailybeast.com/trump-lawyer...
thedailybeast.com
Trump Lawyer Sued for $120M Over Shady Spying Drama
Ted Kittila worked for Truth Social while acting for a foreign regime that tried to buy sinister spyware in the U.S.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Not often I get to write about Georgia these days, but… www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-sign-...
thedailybeast.com
Trumps Sign Mega Tower Deal With Firm Tied to Sanctioned Pro-Putin Billionaire
The Trump Organization is moving into the Kremlin’s backyard.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Latest out now with the Daily Beast, on how the Dubai-based billionaire behind a company just granted $314 million to build a new ICE mega-jail previously threatened to assassinate his own executives and their families. www.thedailybeast.com/billionaire-...
thedailybeast.com
Billionaire Behind ICE Mega-Jail Accused of Death Threats Against Workers
Dubai-based tycoon who just landed a $313.4 million DHS contract allegedly threatened to assassinate his colleagues and their families.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
More to follow later in the week. Stay tuned. 4/ENDS
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Hegseth, of Signalgate fame, handed a $100M IT security contract to protect Pentagon facilities from hackers to a firm accused of allowing cybercriminals to make off with the personal data of more than 45,000 people, including its own employees. 3/4 www.thedailybeast.com/hegseth-hand...
thedailybeast.com
Hegseth Hands Pentagon Contractor Behind Security Disaster Another $100M
The Defense Secretary has his own history of failing to protect sensitive information.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Kristi Noem granted almost $1 billion in Trump wall tenders to a group of GOP donors who allegedly smuggled undocumented migrants into the country, armed them to act as border guards, and allowed them to take part in a wild shootout with other migrants. 2/4 www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbie-g...
thedailybeast.com
ICE Barbie Gives Giant Border Contract to Accused People Smugglers
The company is alleged to have illegally employed Mexicans... and is now building a wall to keep them out.
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Couple of Daily Beast exclusives out in the past few days from the ever-joyful world of MAGA public contracting. 1/4
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
That’s presumably because the measures come just over a week after Hunnewell sold Imedi to another close ally of the Ivanishvili regime, while remaining a close business partner of the country’s top oligarch through its other holdings. A day late, and a dollar short. 9/ENDS
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Hunnewell Partners, based in the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea, appears nowhere on the list of sanctioned entities released by the British government on Feb. 24, on the fourth anniversary of the launch of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 8/9
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
These and other narratives have been consistently used by the Ivanishvili regime to justify flagrant attacks against journalists, political opponents, civil society actors and activists. Georgia now has more political prisoners per capita than Russia. 7/9
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Imedi has meanwhile only deepened its campaign against Georgia’s historic Western partners, pushing bullshit conspiracy theories, coined by ruling oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, about a “Global Party of War” hellbent on dragging the country into the war in Ukraine. 6/9
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
A third story, co-authored with Josimar’s Paul Brown and released in July 2025, delved into Hunnewell’s role in bankrolling a billion-dollar spat between powerful Russian interests through years-long litigation in the UK courts. 5/9
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
In the aftermath of that investigation, Imedi ran a weeklong smear campaign in an effort to discredit my reporting, and I was banned from returning to Georgia not long after. Almost nine months later, no court date has yet been set for my appeal. 4/9
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
My second report, published in March 2025, revealed Hunnewell’s secret ties to Kremlin oligarch Roman Abramovich, which had lasted until at least six weeks after the former Chelsea FC owner was sanctioned by the UK in 2022. 3/9
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
I first reported on Imedi in October 2024, exposing how the UK group behind the network, Hunnewell Partners, was pumping out pro-government disinformation while the regime looked the other way on its alleged exploitation of pensioners through the country’s third largest bank. 2/9
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
This morning, the UK sanctioned Georgia’s largest broadcaster, Imedi TV. No media organization has done more to amplify the regime’s anti-Western propaganda amid the war on Ukraine, or to rationalize Georgia’s descent into violent authoritarianism. 1/9
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Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 24/01/2026
Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 according to local police officials. DHS told Fox News that the man was “armed with a gun”. A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired. x.com/BillMelugin_...
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
A letter to the master of Trinity Hall, in response to her email to alumni regarding the Guardian's reporting this week: www.theguardian.com/education/20...
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
When they kick you out of Georgia and you make it 9,000 miles to Argentina before the universe starts mocking you…
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
EXCLUSIVE: A top attorney behind MAGA’s push to see Hunter Biden jailed for violating foreign influence laws was at the same time working for an abusive foreign regime that tried to buy sinister surveillance software in the U.S. Latest for @thedailybeast www.thedailybeast.com/magas-hunter...
thedailybeast.com
MAGA’s Hunter Biden Ukraine Bulldog Now Working for Foreign Spies
GOP lawyer Ted Kittila helped push claims of foreign influence peddling against Hunter Biden even as he worked for an abusive foreign regime.
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Index on Censorship @indexoncensorship.org · 23/10/2025
When journalist @willneal.bsky.social was barred from #Georgia, his life was turned upside down. But for citizens, the country’s slide into violent authoritarianism has left them in a far more dangerous position. Read his account in our latest magazine issue ⬇️ journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
It’s been more than four months since I was expelled from Georgia with no word on a hearing date for my appeal. Here’s my latest for Index on Censorship about the ban, and what it says more broadly about the dire situation the country now finds itself in. papyrus.exacteditions.com/issues/14183...
papyrus.exacteditions.com
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
bylinetimes.com/2025/07/30/m...
bylinetimes.com
Bot Verification
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
bylinetimes.com/2025/03/31/m...
bylinetimes.com
Moscow’s Ties to the Georgian Regime Ran Through Kensington and Chelsea
Leaked documents reveal how UK firm Hunnewell Partners, controlled by alleged enablers of Georgia’s ruling oligarch, facilitated a top Putin crony’s attempts to exploit the collapse of a more than $1....
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
meduza.io/en/feature/2...
meduza.io
Loans for scares In Georgia, a news network’s propagandistic turn and an alleged loansharking scheme lead back to the same London-based firm — Meduza
In the run-up to this month’s parliamentary vote, Georgia’s political crisis has continued to spiral on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts, with the ruling Georgian Dream party cracking down ...
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
Spoke with Daniel Boffey for his @theguardian.com piece today on Hunnewell Partners. Good to see the issue getting more attention. Some links to my prior reporting on the group below. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
theguardian.com
Owner of Georgian broadcaster called country’s ‘propaganda megaphone’ is based in London
Imedi TV owner denies criticism by EU disinformation monitor and says it is editorially independent
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Hans Gutbrod @hansgutbrod.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s... Article doesn't have much that's new for people following #Georgia & reading @willneal.bsky.social coverage of Imedi and Hunnewell but at least brings the malfeasance to an even wider audience.
theguardian.com
Owner of Georgian broadcaster called country’s ‘propaganda megaphone’ is based in London
Imedi TV owner denies criticism by EU disinformation monitor and says it is editorially independent
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The Coalition of Cyber Investigators @coalitionci.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Pleased that our co-founder @nealysart.bsky.social contributed to this deep dive by @theobserveruk.bsky.social on #SpaceX investment fraud from @willneal.bsky.social Scammers are leveraging AI & sophisticated tactics to defraud investors globally #osint #investigations #investment #fraud #spaceX
observer.co.uk
Elon Musk’s space unicorn has a scam problem | The Observer
Cybercriminals are stealing the identities of investment firms to con millions out of would-be SpaceX investors
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
🚨NEW: Amid Musk’s turn to Dark MAGA, the rush for SpaceX shares has seen fraudsters mercilessly targeting investors with no means of buying into the firm’s success. My debut @theobserveruk.bsky.social, on how one group used AI to dupe victims out of millions.👇 observer.co.uk/news/busines...
observer.co.uk
Elon Musk’s space unicorn has a scam problem | The Observer
Cybercriminals are stealing the identities of investment firms to con millions out of would-be SpaceX investors
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Hans Gutbrod @hansgutbrod.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
the entire section is worth reading. @blairmcdougall.com "The complaint of the democracy activists I used to work with is that all of this brutality is happening while the regime’s money is washed through business associates in London." Hello @willneal.bsky.social ! No mincing of words there.
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New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Mamuka Mdinaradze, a key architect of Georgia's authoritarian shift, has just been appointed head of the state security service. Last May, @willneal.bsky.social reported on the government unit funded by Western countries, before being used against them. newlinesmag.com/reportage/na...
newlinesmag.com
NATO Helped Georgia Counter Russian Trolls. Then the Strategy Backfired
As a previously successful communications initiative falls into disarray, the Black Sea country’s drift away from the West seems inexorable
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Guga Chomakhidze @gugachomakhidze.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
A gripping exposé by @willneal.bsky.social unravels the billion-dollar legal intrigue linking oligarchs, offshore financiers, and sanctioned assets — all playing out in UK courts. A must-read for anyone curious about lawfare, kleptocracy, and shadow geopolitics
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
But Guriev appears wholly unconvinced the buck stops with Gorbachev, or Kushnir, or Hunnewell, or even 777, suggesting his suspicions may very well be directed elsewhere. Where exactly, for now, being the billion-dollar question. 13/ENDS
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
After losing his claim against Guriev, Gorbachev says he now doesn’t have the funds to meet the roughly £12 million awarded to the Kremlin oligarch in damages, after Kushnir, Hunnewell and 777 all inexplicably stopped financing his legal costs back in May 2023. 12/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Blazquez first met Rukhadze in Tbilisi sometime in the early 2000s. Public rulings from separate UK proceedings show Blazquez later went on to assist Hunnewell tracking down or managing assets on behalf of late Georgian oligarch Arkady Patarkatsishvili’s family. 11/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
The request that 777 be brought in on the funding deal appears to have come off the back of Hunnewell co-founder Irakli Rukhadze’s close friendship with one of the Miami group’s operating partners, Andres Blazquez. 10/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Currently the target of a money laundering investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, 777 has a long history of dealings with now-sanctioned Russian oligarchs, including key Putin confidant Gennady Timchenko and billionaire fintech entrepreneur Oleg Boyko. 9/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
It’s not clear under what circumstances, or why exactly, Hunnewell Partners teamed up with Kushnir. What’s known, however, is that the firm soon requested that 777 Partners, a shady Miami investment group, also be brought in to assist with financing. 8/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Kushnir was later joined by Hunnewell Partners. Described by critics as an “enabler” of Georgia’s brutal Ivanishvili regime, Byline has reported on the UK group before, exposing its secret dealings with sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich. 7/13 👉 shorturl.at/KIRyi
shorturl.at
Moscow’s Ties to the Georgian Regime Ran Through Kensington and Chelsea
Leaked documents reveal how UK firm Hunnewell Partners, controlled by alleged enablers of Georgia’s ruling oligarch, facilitated a top Putin crony’s attempts to exploit the collapse of a more than $1....
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Documents from those proceedings reveal Gorbachev’s lawsuit was first funded by Levi Kushnir—a controversial Israeli businessman and former Portsmouth FC chairman, who acquired his stake in the club from Alexandre Gaydamak, a Russian oligarch convicted of arms trafficking in Angola. 6/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Gorbachev’s claim backfired after the courts ruled his evidence “was contradictory, lacked credibility, and at times, was plainly false.” Guriev, suspecting his adversary had not acted alone, has since brought new proceedings in Florida to ascertain who else may have been involved, and why. 5/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Back in 2019, Guriev was sued in the UK by Alexander Gorbachev, an old comrade from his days as a Communist Party youth secretary, who claimed Guriev promised him a $1.3 billion share in PhosAgro over the course of conversations in London pubs, restaurants and saunas more than a decade prior. 4/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
While Guriev was sanctioned by the US, the UK and the EU in 2022 for his ownership of companies generating significant revenue for Russia’s war machine, it was not, in fact, the first time his stake in PhosAgro had caused him trouble. 3/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
With an estimated wealth of $9.5 billion, Andrei Guriev is the former Kremlin politician and close Putin confidant who controls, among other assets, PhosAgro—Moscow’s largest producer of phosphate fertilizers, worth about $7.6 billion. 2/13
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
🚨NEW: Latest for @bylinetimes.bsky.social with Josimar's Paul Brown, on how an Israeli tycoon, a shady Miami investment group, and a UK firm controlled by enablers of the Georgian regime became embroiled in a £1bn legal spat between powerful Russian business interests. 1/13 👉 shorturl.at/8hHYG
shorturl.at
Mystery at the Heart of £1 Billion UK Legal Offensive Against Top Putin Ally
A sanctioned former Kremlin politician was sued for shares in his multi-billion-dollar fertiliser company. But why did a trio of companies with links to Russian interests in football get involved?
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will neal @willneal.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
New report from the folks at Civic Idea on how Iranian companies appear to be using Georgian markets to circumvent international sanctions → civicidea.ge/en/georgian-...
civicidea.ge
Georgian Dream’s anti-western policy: How Iranian companies are using Georgia to bypass sanctions - Civic Idea
HOW IRANIAN COMPANIES ARE USING GEORGIA TO BYPASS SANCTIONS? Civic IDEA’s latest investigation sheds light on a little-known but deeply troubling dimension of Iran-Georgia relations. The report exposes how Iranian businessmen are using Georgia as a strategic transit point to evade international sanctions and channel funds back to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Our findings reveal […]
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Hans Gutbrod @hansgutbrod.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
In the past, #Georgia was open to international press. In the last ten months, this, like so much else, has gone into full reverse. Here is the story. @clementgirardot.bsky.social @willneal.bsky.social cpj.org/2025/07/geor...
cpj.org
Georgia increasingly blocks entry to Western journalists amid authoritarian turn - Committee to Protect Journalists
When British investigative journalist Will Neal was turned back at Georgia’s border with Armenia in May, he became the fifth of at least six European journalists in recent months to be denied entry in...
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