Robert Smith

Some professional news: I have shifted into a new role at the FT as the paper’s Financial Investigations Editor. I’ll have even more scope to dig into the less salubrious nooks and corners of financial markets, while doing my best to follow the money on a broader range of subjects.

This story went up late on Friday and got less attention than it otherwise might have done. A sentencing hearing on Friday was told three participants in the Tory election-betting scandal - dismissed at the time as "a flutter" - would have made nearly £50,000 if undetected www.ft.com/content/510e...

“quantitative leasing” 💀

‘Faked signatures of former US president Richard Nixon, former UK prime minister David Cameron and US singer Chris Brown were used on documents and showed a “cavalier” attitude to fraud, the officer said.’ as.ft.com/r/98612d2e-5...

Is the Gulf family behind bottled-water company Highland Spring experiencing liquidity issues? Our reporting certainly uncovered lots of problems with lenders....

Jack Ross, CEO of Turning Point UK and a former Conservative election candidate, has been suspended from the party in the wake of undercover sting by Al Jazeera reportedly showing him discussing the cost of hiring contract killers. Story from @benquinn75.bsky.social and me

lol www.ft.com/content/9bc1...

Now it’s out in the US, I think I can safely say that I was lucky enough to see an advanced screening of You Can See Everything a few weeks back and it exceeded my lofty expectations. Nathan Fielder takes things in directions you cannot possibly anticipate. How does he do it? Generational talent.

genuinely think that chartbeat and real-time audience traffic insight dashboards are one of the worst things to happen to the media industry. it found out what people read and wanted and public trust has pretty much only sharply declined since then

Five years on from the collapse of Greensill Capital, the risk is still popping up in unexpected places This time: Berkshire Hathaway!

The FT Alphaville weekly substack newsletter from @bryce.lol remains one of my favourite reads on markets. This week: AI’s “Where’s Poochie?” moment ftav.substack.com/p/ai-is-pooc...

Update: the A7 entity involved has just been sanctioned by the UK.

Archer’s resignation from the London mayoral race after it was revealed he lied in court was the thing that got Paul Foot up from his sickbed and contributing again, having first started chronicling Archer’s lies and misdemeanours in 1969. From the Private Eye archive. Issue 992, December 1999.

UK donor Phillip Ullmann told the FT that he told the MP “about Gary Klopfenstein, that he was a wealthy American in the US who was willing to donate” Jenrick has previously denied any wrongdoing and said he had no knowledge of Klopfenstein’s alleged involvement

Excellent comedy www.rollonfriday.com/news-content...

A big new story from us: a big new leak means that we can put numbers on the scale of A7 -- the Kremlin's huge money-laundering machine. $6.9bn laundered through the international banking system via SWIFT, with $1.1bn sent to StanChart alone. www.ft.com/content/3848...

Chris Spargo’s video earlier this year on British bins was such a delightful examination of a ubiquitous feature of daily life you never really consider. The new follow up where he’s invited to the bin factory is an absolute treat. Fantastic. youtu.be/hbxzhtgDf_o?...

Ben Delo is many things: a crypto billionaire, a Reform mega-donor and a free speech advocate. @oilsheppard.bsky.social and I discovered he's also the landlord of a bankrupt academic after funding her failed libel claim against a Jewish artist who complained of antisemism www.ft.com/content/21aa...

"Yes, humanity got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot more LinkedIn posts." alignment.openai.com/misalignment...

Reform UK’s mega-donor backed a friend’s libel claim. Now he controls her home www.ft.com/content/21aa... via @ft Me with @bondhack.ft.com

For @ftweekend.com I’ve interviewed the marvellous Dianne Reeves and Branford Marsalis ahead of the release tomorrow of their new album marking the centenary of John Coltrane’s birth. www.ft.com/content/d23a...

Harrowing read; inspiring ending.

!!!!!!! www.propublica.org/article/dona...

When did this guy change jobs from political sketchwriter to midlife crisis correspondent?

Excellent piece of financial history writing here. And do read the comment below the line from a Salomon trader who told Buffett not to rescue them! as.ft.com/r/c4b7d680-f...

Butlins isn't what it used to be, is it? In my day your knees needed to be completely visible to the judge if you wanted to enter the contest.

The media deserves plenty of criticism. We all know this. However, one of my least favorite long running lefty media critiques is "Why don't you use this specific legal language describing an uncharged criminal act in a headline?!?" Anyone with any real experience knows publications can't do that.

top-tier financial memeage from @sindap.bsky.social on Apollo www.ft.com/content/98d0...

FIELDER/HOLMES is FROST/NIXON for a certain breed of ageing millenial. Couldn't be more excited. youtu.be/GGJSRFWALTI?...

Police are facing growing questions over how up to 500 masked activists dressed in black brought parts of Dover to a standstill on Saturday. Authorities have been accused of failure to act, intelligence failures and being ‘caught on the hoof’. www.ft.com/content/f244...

How could an associate professor in divinity at Cambridge be expected to know that lying is bad? thecritic.co.uk/mone...

Amen 🙏🏻

Wonderful FT debut from the great @willoyd.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/96a0200e-4...