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'Pig Butchering' Crypto Scams, Money Laundering, and a Missing Bus Station: Why the Isle of Man Is at High Risk of £2bn Moneyval Hit

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY Impending spot checks to see how well e-gaming firms and online casinos are deploying measures against financial crimes and terrorism funding have left the Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man badly exposed, a leading authority on Anti Money Laundering (AML), has told Byline Times. "This is where the Isle of Man definitely has a high risk of being grey-listed," said Dr Ilaria Zavoli, a senior researcher at the University of Leeds, adding: "What I see is not positive." Grey listing is an international designation for jurisdictions with strategic financial-crime and terrorism-funding deficiencies and can trigger rapid 'de-risking' by investors. The warning comes ahead of a critical inspection of the Irish Sea island's regulatory health next year by Moneyval, the European partner to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF); inter-governmental bodies which combat the financing of terrorism and global cybercrime worth $15Tn a year – a figure set to reach 20Tn in 2026, making it the second biggest economy behind China. Inspectors are expecting a series of legislative improvements at the Crown Dependency – first called for in 2016 – alongside effective implementation of financial crime protections within the 148 companies it currently regulates. EXCLUSIVE Inside the Silicon Valley Plot to Annex Venezuela for Oil That America Can't Afford Donald Trump's decapitation of the Venezuelan Government opens the door to his Big Tech oligarch supporters' dreams of creating an anti-democratic 'Network State' in the country, reports Nafeez Ahmed Nafeez Ahmed Dr Zavoli, a lawyer whose academic work informs UK AML policy on property and construction, said: "The Isle of Man Government must show both that it has the tools to fight money laundering and economic crime and that it's using them properly. "The inspectors will go into businesses directly and ask them, for example, how their suspicious activity reports and anti-money laundering checks work in daily practice? "They will not be fooled by fine words and box ticking. This will be the main channel of risk for grey-listing." Finding itself in the company of Botswana, Albania and Lebanon on an FATF-body grey list could cost the Isle of Man 11% of its £6bn economy, according to Government predictions. At £660m a year, it would take just three years to equal the island's entire circa-£2bn cash reserves, while posing real risk to its prized AA3 credit rating. The Isle of Man financial services sector has suffered a string of damaging headlines in the last 18 months. Last year a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report called the island a "transnational laundromat" for Asian crime groups exploiting "under-regulated" online gambling platforms, while Manx structures have also been implicated in so-called "pig-butchering" crypto scams – long-con investment frauds linked to human-trafficking. Last month, a Financial Times investigation raised serious questions about the due diligence carried out by the Isle of Man Government in relation to King Gaming, a company under investigation over "huge" allegations of fraud and international money laundering. Further, day-to-day governance on the island will soon be falling under the Moneyval spotlight. These include a £90m court case featuring allegations, denied by the Manx Department of Infrastructure and its Treasury, of unlawful interference and misfeasance in public office over the award of an infrastructure contract, a saga that has left Douglas locals exasperated and missing a new bus station, shops, and homes first promised more than a decade ago. "Moneyval looks at all aspects of the way the island is run when it makes its grey listing decisions," says Dr Zavoli. "Definitely they will care about this. If there is any suggestion of corruption in public offices that obviously has a reputational threat to th...

100 People Detained in UK Immigration Removal Centres Say They Are Subjected to Extreme Physical and Emotional Abuse

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY A group of more than 100 detainees say that they have been subjected to extreme physical, psychological and emotional abuse at two immigration removal centres. A report produced by asylum seekers at Harmondsworth and Brook House alleges that guards have intimidated, humiliated and been physically abusive towards them. The group is calling for access to legal representation and healthcare and the respect for universal human rights. "We are not criminals; we are refugees seeking safety and freedom," they said in a statement. "Our only 'crime' was crossing the English Channel and requesting asylum." They added: "Healthcare is inadequate, legal representation is denied, families are isolated, and basic human rights are violated. People are mentally deteriorating due to constant fear, harassment, and uncertainty about their fate… Our lives are at risk." Their report includes incidents of alleged abuse, including the removal of several people "taken to France against their will" under the government's 'one in, one out scheme'. EXCLUSIVE British Woman Left 'Stranded' in Hungary After Home Office Refuse to Let Her Bring Niece to the UK The 13-year-old girl, who she was given parental responsibility over after being abandoned by her parents, could be sent into state care because of the Home Office's decision Nicola Kelly One Ethiopian man reported being physically beaten for protesting his removal. The group says that the families of those who have been deported to France under the scheme are given no information about their relatives' location or welfare, raising serious safety concerns. In one case, a man with severe mental health issues was told he could not access treatment because he already had a plane ticket to France. Several detainees have attempted suicide but been dismissed without adequate treatment or psychological support, the report found. In October 2025, charity Medical Justice told the Home Affairs Select Committee that all those people its clinicians had assessed in immigration removal centres, who had been detained pending removal, had a serious mental health condition. Suicidal thoughts were "alarmingly common" with several people stating that they wished to die rather than be deported to France. Emma Ginn, Director of Medical Justice said: "Clinical safeguards in UK immigration detention do not operate as intended, and fail to identify, protect and route out vulnerable people unsuitable for detention. The harm caused by immigration detention is widely acknowledged." In 2023, the Brook House Inquiry identified a "toxic culture" and "credible evidence" of breaches of human rights law including the use of racist, derogatory language by some staff towards detainees. The Inquiry followed a BBC Panorama documentary in which guards at the detention centre were seen adopting use-of-force techniques to provoke or punish people. The programme also showed the endemic use of drugs, the failure to report incidents of attempted suicide and the frequent racial abuse of detainees. Last year, three individuals took legal action against the Government for its failure to comply with the 33 recommendations in the Brook House Inquiry final report. The claimants, who were all former immigration detainees, said that they had been subject to mistreatment. They argued that neither the Conservative nor the Labour governments have taken steps to comply with the recommendations and have actively weakened safeguards through their policies, putting greater numbers of vulnerable people at risk of harm in detention. Shabana Mahmood's Asylum Seeker Military 'Warehousing' Plans Delayed Amid Opposition by Labour MPs Home Office sources tell Byline Times that local Labour MPs are opposing plans by the Home Secretary to use barracks and army bases to house asylum seekers amid rising community tensions Nicola Kell...

British Woman Left 'Stranded' in Hungary After Home Office Refuse to Let Her Bring Niece to the UK

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY A British citizen has been "left stranded" in Hungary with her two children while attempting to bring her 13-year-old niece to the UK. Natali is the girl's legal guardian and has full parental responsibility for the child, who was previously in state care. Yesterday the Home Office refused her niece a visa to settle in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme, citing a lack of evidence. Despite providing all of the required documentation, including translated copies of birth certificates showing evidence of a family relationship, the Home Office stated that the child would be refused settlement as "admission to the UK is not necessary to safeguard the child's best interests." Natali is a settled UK resident with indefinite leave to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme. A UK Home Study Assessment by Hartlepool's Children's Services confirmed that she can provide a safe and loving home for her niece. EXCLUSIVE 'They've Ruined Christmas': Nigerian Student Blocked By Home Office From Visiting UK Family for Holidays British academic and his Nigerian wife repeatedly stopped from hosting family members, including at their own wedding, due to visa restrictions brought in by Keir Starmer's Government Nicola Kelly She fears that her niece, who was abandoned by her parents in May 2025, will now be sent back to institutional care. "I am stuck in Hungary, trapped between two impossible choices," said Natali. "I must either stay here, which isn't my children's home, or return to the UK without my niece, abandoning her back into state care. That would be highly traumatic for her." She added: "I have met every requirement, submitted every document and followed instructions from both governments, in the UK and in Hungary. I am trying to remain calm but I am exhausted and running out of funds. I can't even fuel my car. I don't know what more I can do." Natali travelled to Hungary on 1 November to bring her niece to their local UKVI centre for a biometric appointment and to submit final paperwork. The child protection application was made on November 7. Following the appointment at the UKVI centre, the family were informed the process would be swift as they had paid for priority processing. The Home Office refusal was issued without prior clarification or further request for documents. Official court and social service records had been provided, alongside birth certificates indicating that the teenager was related to Natali and that she had been in state care after being abandoned by her parents. Alongside concerns for her niece, Natali fears that further delays will mean that her two children, who were born and raised in the UK, face attendance and safeguarding penalties by local authorities when they return to Britain. "My children are missing school and separated from their father," she said. "They are stuck in a foreign country where they cannot speak the language and struggle to communicate with anyone except me. It is an impossible situation." ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. PAY ANNUALLY – £44.75 A YEAR PAY MONTHLY – £4.50 A MONTH MORE OPTIONS We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. Prior to the visa refusal, Natali's local MP Jonathan Brash had attempted to urgently contact the Home Office to emphasise that this is a child protection and family reunification case supported by the UK and Hungarian authorities. The Home Office response indicated that the visa application would take longer to process as the family are outside the UK. The department said in its refusal letter that the final decision took into accoun...

Inside the Silicon Valley Plot to Annex Venezuela for Oil That America Can't Afford

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY At two in the morning, Venezuelan time, on January 3 the lights went out across Caracas. Within hours, the geopolitical architecture of the Western Hemisphere had been violently rearranged. Under cover of a cyber-induced blackout, the United States launched Operation Absolute Resolve – a massive, multi-domain military intervention that culminated in the extrajudicial capture and rendition of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The White House has framed this as being a decisive law enforcement action against a "narco-terrorist" regime. President Donald Trump declared the US was now "in charge" of Venezuela, with Maduro jailed in New York. However, the players and financial interests behind the raid reveal something far more troubling. The move not only dovetails with longstanding Russian attempts, since 2017, to encourage Trump to consider annexing Venezuela, in return for allowing Russia to take control of Ukraine, further evidence unearthed by Byline Times also ties it to tech industry plans to turn a sovereign nation into a laboratory for Silicon Valley's most radical experiment: the "Network State." The 'Network State' Laboratory The US fossil fuel industry spent some $445 million through the last election cycle to influence Donald Trump and US Congress, and donated $19 million to Trump's inauguration ceremonies. Yet the American shale boom which has buoyed the US economy for the last decade is inexorably slowing down. Industry insiders and even conventional forecasts acknowledge that US shale oil and gas production is likely to peak this decade, hitting a long plateau before a decline that steadily shaves off the traditional foundations of US prosperity. Grabbing Venezuelan oil, at least on paper, compensates for this coming energy crisis – expanding the total fossil fuel resources, boosting oil stock prices and conveying to global markets that US oil majors are here to stay. However, for pro-Trump Silicon Valley figures like Peter Thiel, Balaji Srinivasan, and Marc Andreessen, the annexation of Venezuela represents a business opportunity of a different kind. They are proponents of what Srinivasan has branded the "Network State" – a movement seeking to fragment existing nations into proprietary, market-governed enclaves or "startup societies". Venezuela, broken by sanctions and now decapitated by military force, offers the potential of being the ultimate tabula rasa. The intellectual blueprint for this intervention began years ago. Founder of the Charter Cities Institute Mark Lutter, who in 2018 received funding from the Thiel-backed Emergent Ventures for work "on charter cities and also an attempt to create a new charter city", previously discussed authoring a white paper on Venezuela premised on a "transfer of power". The paper was never released to the public. In a 2019 conversation Mark Lutter and 80,000 Hours podcast host Robert Wiblin talked about how to capitalise on the forcible removal of the Venezuelan Government. Speaking seven years before the US eventually decapitated the regime, the pair spoke about the sovereignty of the country as being a mere obstacle to economic experimentation. Wiblin, a former Executive Director at the Centre for Effective Altruism – the philosophical engine room for a significant faction of Silicon Valley – hypothesised a scenario where "Maduro gets removed" without saying by what means. Lutter revealed that his Centre for Innovative Governance Research was already drafting a white paper based on the "assumption" that this "transfer of power" would occur. Crucially, Lutter framed this regime change as a necessary precondition for his ideology to take root. He argued that a post-Maduro Government, likely operating in a state of desperation, would be "willing to adopt ideas that otherwise they might not be willing to adopt" – specifically, handing ...

Trump and Musk Welcome Russian Propaganda After Sanctioning European Disinformation Experts

Read our Digital & Print Editions And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system SUBSCRIBE TODAY In what Will Sommer at The Bulwark has described as the first time the "[Trump] administration has offered assistance to someone from Canada", the US State Department has intervened to reinstate the visa of Laura (Lauren) Chen, co-founder of an illegally funded media outlet aimed at reaching American audiences with Russian propaganda. Chen, the Canadian founder of Tenet Media on YouTube – which provided a platform to several right-wing commentators including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin – was exposed in 2024 for taking $10 million from staff at Russia's state broadcaster RT. Russia Allegedly Spent $10 Million Funding US Media Company and its 'Superspreader' Creators to Push Pro-Kremlin Disinformation One of the content creators was allegedly paid $400,000 a month for four weekly video productions Pekka Kallioniemi According to the indictment, two RT employees channelled money through a shell "investment" arrangement into Tenet, which then paid prominent American right-wing influencers to produce videos attacking Ukraine aid, praising Donald Trump and amplifying divisive domestic themes. Chen lost her US work status and returned to Canada after the scandal, but has now been allowed to re-enter the United States According to Chen's recent posts on Instagram and X, her new visa was secured with assistance from officials in the Trump Administration, specifically Joe Rittenhouse, a senior adviser on consular affairs at the State Department, whom she thanked publicly by name. Rittenhouse replied: "This Christmas, I'm so happy to help correct the wrongs of the past administration. Being able to bring Lauren and her family back for Christmas would not be possible without new Leadership at the White House, FBI, CBP, and State Department." A few days earlier, in response to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcements of sanctions against five Europeans, Rittenhouse celebrated by reposting a GIF from the far-right British influencer Carl Benjamin, "You get what you fucking deserve!" The Musk-Trump Alliance Is Back as the White House Wields Diplomatic Power to Defend Big Tech Profits Presented as a defence of free speech, the Trump administration's visa sanctions on European regulators shield tech platform profits and undermine democratic regulation abroad Caroline Orr Bueno These sanctions – prompting EU condemnation – targeted the mastermind of the Digital Services Act, Thierry Breton, and four other individuals who work on detecting online hate speech, extremism and disinformation; Claree Melfod, the co-founder and leader of the Global Disinformation Index: Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon, the two CEOs of HateAid, which provides legal support for victims of online hate speech: and Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Rittenhouse, who retweets the far-right EDL founder Tommy Robinson, and regularly amplifies both Carl Benjamin and Tenet Media's Tim Pool, commented on the announcement of the ban – "inject into my veins… I love my job" – implying he was involved in the sanctions as well as welcoming back Tenet Media's co-founder. The support for Russian paid for influencers spreading disinformation, compared to the US State Department's targeting of Europeans investigating it, could hardly be more stark. Musk Aligns with Trump and Putin in Midterm Push While Elon Musk's antipathy towards hate speech monitors and the Digital Services Act is commercially obvious – the European Commission fined X €120 million in December 2025 for breaching DSA transparency rules – his support for Russian propaganda channels is slightly more hidden. The Tenet scheme sits alongside a wider Kremlin influence system overseen by Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the Presidential Administration. With the demise of Sergey Prigozhin and his infamous troll farms, the Kreml...