Ex-Worldclear employee Richard Whitham on working for Worldclear, establishing a company to help process its transactions, Changi prison & more

Hamilton Confidential is a podcast about Worldclear Ltd, based on leaked documents from the New Zealand financial services provider.

Here's episode two.

Episode 2, Richard Whitham; from Hamilton to Changi prison.
Featuring an interview with Richard Whitham, who worked for Worldclear as a banking relationships establishment project officer, and subsequently spent more than two years in Singapore's Changi prison. Whitham was the key source of the leak.

Obtained by Interest.co.nz and shared with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Lithuania's 15min.lt, the Belarusian Investigative Center, and Sweden's Expressen, the leak shows Worldclear processing money transfers for a colorful global clientele over a five year period.

There is no evidence that Worldclear or its staff knowingly facilitated financial crimes. David Hillary, Worldclear's founder and managing director, denied any wrongdoing by himself or the firm, saying neither had ever; “knowingly or recklessly facilitated criminal offending, acted for the purpose of assisting any person to commit an offence, or designed or operated services for the purpose of concealing the source, destination, or beneficial connection of illicit funds.”

The podcast is hosted by Gareth Vaughan and Emanuel Stoakes, and produced by Erica Wood. 

You can find all four Hamilton Confidential episodes to date here.

Separate text stories published as part of the investigation can be found here.

Interest.co.nz is grateful for funding support from the Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative, and readers that support interest.co.nz, for helping bring this project to fruition.