The World's Biggest Money Laundering Scandal

New Pod: Axel Humlesjö - Investigative Journalist

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Curious Worldview
March 25, 2025

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Why Under Money Erodes Society

Axel Humlesjö is a Swedish journalist against which money laundering, the plumbing of offshore finance and the cancerous nature of dark money, continuously crash up against.

Axel was a part of the team that uncovered systematic money laundering activities with Swedbank in the Baltics. Part of the team behind the series - The Shadow War - which exposed Russian espionage activities in the Nordics and led to the expulsion of five Russian spies from Sweden. Many other stories as well, but of course co-author of his debut book, The Honey Trap which explores Swedbank's involvement in one of the world's largest money laundering scandals and details this extensive operation for how the Russian security service uses sparrows and other means to honey trap and acquire kompromat on a broad slew of people. Honey traps were used directly to illicit compromising material to infiltrate Swedbank.

This podcast goes into Axel’s views on the evolution of journalism in a globalised world, and the significant role that money plays in shaping political landscapes. He goes as far to say it is the single biggest societal issue facing Europe and how intertwined money laundering is with currying foreign influence.

This was recorded in person in Stockholm with Axel last December, it was the last interview I recorded before I left the country.

00:00 - Axel Humlesjö

01:30 - Journalism in a Globalised World

06:23 - The Impact of Money Laundering on Democracy

13:28 - The Influence of Russian Oligarchs

15:48 - The Structural Damage of Under Money

25:38 - The Iceberg of Financial Corruption

41:53 - The Impact of Money Laundering on Society

48:58 - The Kompromat Strategy: Honey Traps and Coercion

01:07:01 - The Future of Investigative Journalism

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For every 5 people you bring to the newsletter, I’d send you custom merch (or something along these lines)

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And as such, setting up some type of rewards program hasn’t eventuated. BUT with that being said, I would nonetheless try to do something to incentivise you to share the show.

For the sake of transparency - about 5000 people follow the podcast across both Spotify & Apple, and several hundred subscribe to this newsletter. Not everyone listens to every episode, but so far in a 4 year lifetime I’m extremely chuffed with every new person - and I notice every. single. new. person…

To get to the point where things are monetised I’d say tripling both of those metrics is necessary.

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