Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Alexander Rogi, and today I'm speaking with Nick McKenzie.

It was Nick, together with his colleague Richard Baker, who broke the Un-O-E-O-Ele story at their Australian

newspaper The Age, where Nick is a senior investigative reporter.

Nick's Un-Oil Story carries the title, The World's Biggest Bribes Scandal.

It's about a Monaco-based company that serves as a local partner in challenging markets for large

international companies.

It has more than its share of international intrigue, including details surrounding the breakthrough

that enabled Nick and Richard to publish last year.

This whole thing is winding its way through the legal systems of several countries.

Much of what Nick and I will discuss is in the public forum, or based on first-hand accounts

to Nick, including by one former Un-Oil executive. No one has been criminally charged in this matter, and Unoil's website carries a statement

describing the article's allegations as malicious and damaging.

Nick, thank you for joining me.

How did you get started on this story?

Yuniol was known to you prior to last March.

That's right.

Initially, we got started some years before we did our major story, and that was by examining

the operations of an Australian company that had used Unit Oil in the Middle East to win

work, and we had strong information to suggest that its engagement of Unit Oil involved

some sort of corruption or bribery.

By publishing details of that story, someone contacted us anonymously by sending us a letter

in the mail, a letter from somewhere in another part of the world.

...