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An investigation by Global Witness and PPLAAF suggests that Dan Gertler used a money laundering network spanning the DRC, Europe, and Israel to evade US sanctions imposed in 2017. The report alleges that Gertler continued to acquire mining permits via front companies and received payments from major mining firms, including Glencore, while utilizing Afriland First Bank to facilitate these financial arrangements.

A joint investigation by Global Witness and PPLAAF suggests that Dan Gertler evaded US sanctions through a money laundering network spanning the DRC, Europe, and Israel. The report alleges that Gertler used proxy companies to acquire mining permits from Gécamines and that Afriland First Bank played a central role in the evasion scheme. Furthermore, it claims that major mining companies, including Glencore, ERG, and Sicomines, continued to engage in business or make payments to entities linked to Gertler despite the sanctions.

The report argues that the plastic industry employs a 'corporate playbook' of delay, distraction, and derailment to protect profits and avoid mandatory regulation. It finds that voluntary commitments from major polluters are often 'paper promises' lacking transparency and accountability, while group initiatives serve as a 'smokescreen' for continued plastic production. The document calls for robust, mandatory legislation, including deposit return systems and virgin-plastic taxes, to address the crisis.

The report alleges that Maxland (PNG) Limited is using a rubber plantation project on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, as a cover for illegal logging. Global Witness claims the company has bypassed provincial approvals, ignored landowner consent, and failed to plant the promised rubber trees while exporting millions of dollars in timber to China and Japan. The investigation links the operation to the Joinland Group and identifies several international financial institutions in Malaysia, Singapore, Norway, and the US that provide funding or investment to the entities involved.

The report details how Cerberus Capital Management, through its portfolio companies FirstKey Homes and Landmark Mortgages, has engaged in aggressive eviction practices, neglected property maintenance, and trapped homeowners in unfavorable mortgage terms. In the US, FirstKey Homes is cited for high eviction rates in cities like Memphis and Atlanta, and for outbidding first-time homebuyers in Phoenix. In the UK, Landmark Mortgages is criticized for maintaining 'mortgage prisons' for borrowers who cannot switch to better deals despite making payments.

The report identifies a pattern of financial ties—including funding, sponsorship, and investments—between the UK's professional science and engineering bodies and the fossil fuel and arms sectors. It highlights that organisations such as the Royal Academy of Engineering, EngineeringUK, and the Energy Institute received significant funding and promoted these industries despite their ethical shortcomings regarding carbon emissions and human rights.

The report argues that Liberia's progressive community forestry model is being hijacked by logging companies and a complicit Forestry Development Authority (FDA). Companies are using secret agreements, financial coercion, and legal loopholes to secure logging rights before communities officially obtain Authorised Forest Community status. This process often involves co-opting local elites and misleading poor, forest-dependent communities, mirroring previous scandals involving Private Use Permits (PUPs). The report highlights the role of Samling Global-linked companies and warns that these practices risk triggering land disputes and deforestation, undermining Liberia's climate commitments to Norway.

The report exposes the Ngoki oil project in the Republic of Congo as a high-risk venture characterized by corruption, environmental negligence, and potentially exaggerated oil reserves. It highlights the project's threat to the world's largest tropical peatlands in the Cuvette Centrale, which store 30 billion tonnes of carbon. The investigation reveals that the project is controlled by businessman Claude Wilfrid Etoka, who has close ties to President Sassou-Nguesso's family and whose company, SARPD Oil, was dropped by BNP Paribas due to corruption risks. Furthermore, the report argues that the project's Environmental Impact Assessment is "unfit for purpose" as it predates the discovery of the peatlands. It also notes that oil majors Total and ENI have interests in the region, and calls for donors to the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and financial institutions to halt support for oil exploration in these sensitive ecosystems.

Global Witness reveals that Norsudtimber, the DRC's largest logging company, is operating illegally on 90% of its sites, breaching the DRC Forest Code through a lack of management plans and logging outside authorized perimeters. The report highlights how the DRC government is complicit in this illegality, while international donors from France, Germany, and Norway continue to support industrial logging under the flawed theory of 'sustainable forest management' (SFM). Norsudtimber uses a complex web of shell companies in Liechtenstein, Hong Kong, and Dubai to obscure its beneficial owners and trade timber to markets in China, Vietnam, and Europe. The investigation finds that SFM is scientifically unsound for the Congo Basin, as tree species take 100-230 years to mature, far exceeding the 25-year rotation cycle. Furthermore, the report documents negligible development benefits for local communities and significant carbon emissions resulting from forest degradation.

The report exposes the destructive nature of irresponsible rayon production, detailing water and air pollution, worker fatalities, and severe health issues in Asia. It identifies a direct link between these polluting factories—operated by conglomerates like Aditya Birla and Lenzing—and major global brands such as H&M, Zara, and ASOS. The document argues that while rayon is often marketed as a 'green' alternative, its current chemical-intensive production is unsustainable, and calls for brands to use their purchasing power to force a transition to closed-loop, non-toxic manufacturing systems.

The report details how the rapid growth of the viscose industry in China, India, and Indonesia has led to severe water and air pollution, causing health crises such as cancer and birth defects in local communities. It identifies a lack of transparency in the fashion supply chain and finds that major brands, including H&M, Zara (Inditex), and ASOS, source materials from these polluting factories. The document argues that because the industry is highly concentrated—with 70% of global viscose produced by ten factories—major brands have the leverage to force a transition toward closed-loop production systems and less toxic chemicals.

Global Witness finds that all 13 of Liberia's largest logging contracts are illegal due to beneficial ownership violations, tax evasion, and the employment of wartime loggers. The report warns that these illegalities threaten the credibility of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), the Liberia Forest Sector Project (LFSP), and the Liberian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI). It recommends the cancellation of illegal contracts, the enforcement of beneficial ownership disclosure, and the prevention of FLEGT licenses for illegal timber.

The report by Eyes on the Forest (EoF) reveals systemic illegality in the Indonesian palm oil sector, specifically in Riau and Sumatra. Through chain-of-custody tracking, EoF demonstrated that FFB illegally grown in Tesso Nilo National Park and the ex Dalek area reached CPO mills and refineries operated by global giants including Wilmar, RGE (Asian Agri and Apical), Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), and Musim Mas. The findings suggest that current traceability efforts focusing on the mill level are insufficient to prevent the seepage of illegal products, as illegal FFB can travel up to 128 km to reach mills. The report argues that the high prevalence of illegal plantations—estimated by the Indonesian government at 50% in Riau—makes almost all CPO mills in the region high-risk, necessitating a shift toward full traceability to the plantation level.

Between April 2013 and January 2014, logging companies in the Central African Republic (CAR) paid an estimated EUR 3.4 million to the Seleka rebel coalition for 'protection' and to pass checkpoints, effectively funding a regime responsible for mass human rights abuses. Following the Seleka's fall, companies continued to pay an estimated EUR 127,864 to anti-balaka militias in 2014. The report identifies SEFCA, IFB, and the Vicwood Group as primary actors who maintained operations through these payments. It argues that the EU and France failed to enforce the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) and that the EU's Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with CAR is flawed as it attempts to legitimise an industry operating in a failed state. The document recommends a moratorium on industrial logging and the establishment of a Forest Sector Review Committee, drawing parallels to post-war reconstruction in Liberia.

The report finds that illegalities are pervasive across DRC's industrial logging concessions, with every visited site between 2011 and 2014 showing violations. These range from over-harvesting and tax avoidance to human rights abuses and the use of fraudulent CITES permits. Despite laws like the EU Timber Regulation and the US Lacey Act, significant volumes of high-risk timber continue to flow to China, Europe, and the US, driven by weak government enforcement and a culture of impunity in the DRC.

The document details the activities of Vietnamese rubber companies HAGL and VRG in Cambodia and Laos, alleging systemic land grabbing, illegal deforestation, and human rights abuses. It highlights the role of international financiers, including Deutsche Bank and the IFC, in supporting these operations and calls for urgent government and financial interventions to stop illegal concessions and hold the companies accountable.

The report details a land grabbing crisis in Cambodia and Laos driven by Vietnamese companies Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and the Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG). These companies are accused of bypassing legal land limits through shell companies, clearing intact forests, and displacing indigenous communities without adequate compensation. The document highlights the role of international financiers, specifically Deutsche Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), in bankrolling these operations despite their public commitments to sustainability. It concludes that the lack of binding international frameworks allows such companies to operate with impunity, facilitated by corrupt political elites in the host countries.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) documents a pattern of scientific misconduct within the Bush administration, citing cases where political objectives overrode scientific evidence. Key examples include the disregard of environmental impacts in mountaintop removal mining, the denial of over-the-counter access to emergency contraception despite expert advice, and the manipulation of endangered species data for salmon, Florida panthers, bull trout, and trumpeter swans. The report also details the use of political litmus tests for scientific advisory panel appointments and recommends reforms to protect government scientists and ensure the independence of advisory committees.

Global Witness reports that despite a May 1, 1995, timber export ban by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), illegal timber continues to enter Thailand via land and sea. The investigation finds that Thai military officers and companies maintain direct trade links with the Khmer Rouge, with some companies signing multi-year concessions. Global Witness estimates the Khmer Rouge earn between US$10 million and US$20 million per month from the timber trade. The report highlights that the Thai government is undermining the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and the RGC's efforts to curb deforestation, which has already contributed to rice harvest failures and malnutrition in Cambodia.

The report examines how the plastics industry uses voluntary commitments and lobbying to obstruct mandatory legislation. In China, it highlights a reliance on biodegradable plastics over systemic recycling and details how industry interference allegedly prevented the implementation of a deposit return system in Hainan province.