The Investigative Monitor is The Investigative Journal’s weekly review of major accountability reporting from established investigative newsrooms. We summarize findings in our own words, note each outlet’s editorial perspective, and flag where TIJ sees room for independent follow-up. Links go to the original work.
Three weeks before the midterms, the week’s accountability reporting was dominated by public officials’ use of public resources. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, absorbed three separate investigations in five days. A Pentagon procurement official’s former firm landed hundreds of millions in no-bid consulting work. And a Big Four accounting office in Cyprus was accused of helping move a Russian oligarch’s assets offshore on backdated paper. Here is what the records show, and where TIJ intends to dig further.
1. Paxton’s security detail: nearly 1,000 trips, 1 in 6 with a stated business purpose
Outlet: ProPublica and The Texas Tribune (nonprofit, nonpartisan; ProPublica’s editorial posture is generally viewed as left of center). Read the investigation.
Using Department of Public Safety security logs and attorney general’s office records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act, reporter Zach Despart found that Paxton has taken nearly 1,000 trips with a state-funded security detail since 2015, at a cost to taxpayers of about $3.3 million. According to the newsrooms’ analysis, only 138 of those trips, and roughly $553,000 of the cost, could be tied to documented state business. Records indicate the share of trips with a listed business purpose peaked at about 30 percent in 2018 and 2019 and fell to five of 91 trips last year.
The reporting also documents overlap between Paxton’s travel and locations where he or a family trust later purchased property, including Lahaina, Hawaii; Eden and St. George, Utah; and Ocala, Florida. Comparison records suggest the detail cost roughly $24,300 per month on average, against an inflation-adjusted $7,400 per month under his predecessor, Greg Abbott. Paxton’s office did not answer itemized questions but issued a statement citing security threats tied to his work against cartels and violent criminals. DPS declined to comment.
Why it matters: The analysis is built almost entirely on state records rather than anonymous sourcing, which makes it unusually durable. It also arrived the same week as two other Paxton investigations (below), creating a compounding narrative with early voting beginning October 19.
2. Paxton, continued: Dubai footage and donor-friendly legal opinions
Outlets: The Wall Street Journal (news side generally regarded as centrist; editorial page conservative) and The Washington Post (generally regarded as left of center). WSJ report; Washington Post report.
The Journal reported obtaining video from a New Year’s Eve 2024 gathering in Dubai that appears to show Paxton with Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail, two men the Justice Department had charged months earlier in connection with alleged embezzlement from a hospital; Ahmed faces a separate fraud charge. According to the Journal, both remain wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service, and campaign finance records show Ahmed donated about $190,000 to Paxton’s Senate effort, including $25,000 in the days after his indictment. The charges against Ahmed and Suhail are allegations; neither has been tried.
Separately, the Post reported that Paxton issued attorney general opinions that benefited significant donors, including manufacturers of a slot-machine-like gaming device and an investor in a concrete facility facing permitting constraints. Paxton’s campaign had not responded to either outlet at publication, and TIJ notes that Paxton has consistently denied misusing his office, was acquitted by the Texas Senate in his 2023 impeachment trial, and resolved his state securities fraud case through a pretrial agreement.
TIJ follow-up: The Journal’s donation figures and the Post’s opinion-letter findings are independently checkable. TIJ can pull Federal Election Commission filings for Ahmed-linked contributions and cross-reference the Texas AG’s published opinion database against state campaign finance records from the Texas Ethics Commission.
3. Deloitte Cyprus and the Abramovich asset shuffle
Outlets: OCCRP with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, BBC Panorama and The Guardian (nonprofit and public-service newsrooms; OCCRP is widely regarded as rigorous on documentation). Read the investigation.
Drawing on leaked files from MeritServus, a now-sanctioned Cypriot corporate services provider, the consortium reports that Deloitte Cyprus worked with firms managing Roman Abramovich’s wealth to retroactively move assets, including bank deposits, superyachts and luxury homes, from Cypriot entities to British Virgin Islands companies using backdated paperwork. The files indicate the paper trails were constructed to avoid Cypriot legislation that required more tax and transparency from foreign-owned firms, with at least $10 billion in assets reportedly at issue.
Importantly, the reporting states there is no evidence Abramovich personally knew of or approved the paperwork. His lawyers denied any tax evasion and said it was proper for his companies to follow Deloitte’s advice. Deloitte Cyprus said it acts in compliance with applicable law and declined further comment. No regulator has announced findings.
Why it matters: The “enabler” story, in which professional services firms rather than oligarchs themselves become the subject, is increasingly where sanctions enforcement is heading. U.S. readers should watch whether Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control or U.K. authorities act on the MeritServus files.
4. Pentagon consulting contracts and a senior official’s former firm
Outlet: ProPublica, with related reporting by The Wall Street Journal. Read the investigation.
Federal procurement records reviewed by ProPublica show that Alvarez & Marsal Federal received almost $350 million in Defense Department contracts since December, including a $281 million no-bid consulting award in June to advise a Pentagon office led by George Kollitides, a longtime partner at the affiliated private equity firm Alvarez & Marsal Capital. According to spending data cited in the report, that total is roughly five times what A&M entities received from all federal agencies combined in the prior two decades. A securities filing from April listed Kollitides as still serving as a senior adviser to A&M Capital.
The Pentagon’s response deserves equal weight. A spokesman said Kollitides is in full compliance with all ethics laws and that the department maintains a multi-layered conflict-of-interest framework including disclosure reviews and divestitures. A&M Capital said it is separately capitalized and managed from the consulting business and that Kollitides’ work there did not touch defense matters; it also said he had recently departed. No ethics finding or enforcement action has been announced, and the contracts were signed under an “other transaction” authority that is lawful but limits public visibility.
TIJ follow-up: The relevant OTA awards and any ethics waivers are obtainable through USAspending.gov and FOIA requests to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. Procurement reform is a bipartisan priority; the question is whether sole-source consulting advances it.
5. Congress opens an AAU inquiry after youth-sports abuse investigation
Outlet: ProPublica and The Washington Post. Read the follow-up.
Bipartisan leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), sent a letter October 7 to the Amateur Athletic Union demanding a briefing by October 21. The letter cites the newsrooms’ earlier finding that the AAU, with roughly 760,000 athletes and coaches, does not publish a banned-coach list, has used confidential arbitration to keep abuse suits out of open court, and does not offer the child-abuse-prevention training it publicly claims to provide. The committee said it sees parallels to its 2018 investigation of USA Gymnastics.
The AAU has said it will cooperate fully and maintains that its compliance department oversees comprehensive protection policies. The legal hook is notable: the Safe Sport Act requires “all amateur sports organizations” to provide abuse-prevention training, a provision that reaches beyond Olympic governing bodies.
6. OCCRP: An Uzbek security chief’s secret Emirati passport
Outlet: OCCRP and RFE/RL’s Radio Ozodlik. Read the investigation.
Leaked citizenship records indicate that Otabek Umarov, son-in-law of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, obtained UAE citizenship in April 2023 while serving as deputy head of presidential security, a post that Uzbek military law bars from holding a second passport. Dubai land records reviewed by reporters show he now holds 13 apartments valued around $7 million, previously owned by his brother. Umarov, the presidential administration and UAE authorities did not respond to requests for comment. The story is a reminder that Gulf “golden passport” pathways are a transparency gap for allied governments.
7. The Intercept on SLAPP suits and public records
Outlet: The Intercept, in partnership with Freedom of the Press Foundation (progressive; this piece is an argued “Voices” column, not a straight investigation). Read the piece.
The column recounts how Entergy Arkansas sued a Little Rock health-care worker, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Times after she lawfully obtained Public Service Commission records suggesting Google would cover only a third of a solar plant’s cost for a West Memphis data center. U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky denied Entergy’s gag request on September 2 and the utility later dropped the case. Entergy disputed the newspaper’s cost math. Whatever one thinks of the author’s call for a federal anti-SLAPP statute, the underlying public-records fight over data-center subsidies is a live story in a dozen states.
Also noted
The Wall Street Journal’s series on Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle, including texts that appear to show her asking donor Eric Deters to pay a $100,000 American Express balance before her confirmation, culminated in the White House requesting her resignation on October 13; Guilfoyle says the allegations are false and that she will defend her name (CBS News summary). The Washington Free Beacon (conservative) published archival video of Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s past statements on policing; it is opposition-style research rather than records-based investigation, but the clips are verifiable.
Where TIJ goes next
Three threads align with our beats. First, the Paxton travel and donor records are public and granular enough for independent replication; TIJ will request the same DPS logs and build our own trip-by-trip accounting rather than rely on either side’s characterization. Second, the Pentagon OTA consulting awards warrant a FOIA for any conflict-of-interest waivers tied to the Office of Strategic Capital. Third, the Entergy case points to a broader question of who is underwriting data-center power infrastructure; utility commission dockets in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas are the place to start. As always, individuals named here are entitled to a response, and TIJ will update if subjects provide one.
Sources: ProPublica/Texas Tribune; Wall Street Journal; Washington Post; OCCRP (Deloitte); ProPublica (Pentagon); ProPublica/Washington Post (AAU); OCCRP (Umarov); The Intercept; CBS News.