Tom Burgis

Tom Burgis follows the money and the power behind it, tracing how political donations, offshore structures and compromised institutions shape public life. He works as an investigations correspondent at the Guardian, focusing on complex financial and political networks, how wealth is accumulated and deployed, and the consequences when those systems are bent to serve private interests rather than the public good.

Investigations into donors, politics and influence

Much of Burgis’s recent work at the Guardian centres on political money and the people who deploy it. He reports on major donors whose contributions buy them access, leverage or proximity to power, and on the conflicts that arise when those donors’ business interests intersect with public policy or regulation. In coverage of Nigel Farage’s opposition to proposals for a central bank digital currency, he examines how that stance aligns with the financial exposure of a billionaire backer, showing how policy fights can double as battles over the fortunes of individual funders. He consistently connects headline political disputes to the underlying flows of capital and the structures that protect or advance those funders’ positions.

Burgis returns to the same themes across different stories: the opacity of donor networks, the role of intermediaries and advisers, and the way offshore or cross-border arrangements can obscure who ultimately benefits. He treats the donor as a central character in political stories rather than a background figure, detailing their business interests, corporate vehicles and international ties. His reporting emphasises documentation and tangible evidence – contracts, filings, leaked correspondence – to show how influence operates in practice rather than in abstraction.

Dirty money, offshore structures and kleptocracy

Beyond individual donors, Burgis has a sustained focus on dirty money and kleptocratic systems, tracking how corrupt or illicit funds move through global finance into safe jurisdictions. His work examines how shell companies, trusts and convoluted ownership chains allow politically exposed or controversial figures to secure assets and legitimacy, often via the City of London or other financial hubs. He writes about oligarchs, resource deals and offshore vehicles not as isolated scandals but as parts of a broader ecosystem in which law firms, banks and professional enablers play key roles.

He has reported from more than 40 countries, including long stints as a foreign correspondent, and he draws on that experience when covering financial flows that run from resource-rich states to Western markets. Stories on commodity deals, state-owned enterprises and extractive industries often show how value is stripped from producing countries and reappears in private fortunes elsewhere. In these pieces, Burgis links front-line reporting with forensic analysis of contracts and corporate disclosures, making clear how global finance can be used to divert public wealth into private hands.

Institutional failure, lawfare and the cost of truth

A recurring line in Burgis’s work is the vulnerability of institutions meant to police financial misconduct. He has reported on how fraud squads, regulators and law-enforcement agencies can be outgunned by wealthy targets with specialist legal teams and political connections, documenting cases where oligarchs and corporations successfully push back against investigations. His stories frequently highlight strategic lawsuits against public participation and other forms of legal pressure that aim to deter scrutiny, showing how litigation and reputation management can be wielded as tools of control.

He also writes about the personal and professional consequences for reporters who pursue these stories, including his own experience facing defamation claims and smear campaigns linked to powerful subjects of his investigations. In covering lawfare and SLAPP suits, Burgis treats them as part of the same system he documents elsewhere: a network of money, law and political influence designed to keep uncomfortable facts out of public view. His reporting makes clear that the fight over financial transparency is also a fight over who gets to define the truth.

Long-form investigations and cross-border collaboration

Burgis works primarily in long-form and deep-dive formats, including Guardian long reads and multi-part investigations that unfold over time. These pieces typically combine on-the-ground reporting, interviews with sources inside contested institutions, and close reading of documents obtained from leaks, court records or corporate filings. He often collaborates with colleagues across the Guardian’s investigations team and with reporters in other countries when a story spans multiple jurisdictions or regulatory regimes.

His recent work includes joint investigations into exposed data sets and compromised digital infrastructure, where financial and governance failures intersect with technology and privacy. In these projects Burgis applies the same investigative approach he uses on money and donors – following the trail of responsibility, mapping the institutions involved and identifying who benefits or escapes accountability. Across his body of work, he treats finance not just as markets and instruments but as a lens on power, focusing on how systems of wealth, law and information are constructed, contested and occasionally forced into the open.