Hackers Track Public Money Across Borders Peter Schorsch - Saint Petersblog
go to original June 8, 2014

A team of journalists, coders and a financial expert pored over local real estate records online Saturday looking for South Florida property purchased by Venezuelan public officials. The hunt was part of a hemisphere-wide hackathon called “The Money Trail” — a daylong attempt to work across borders to track the flow of public money through the Americas.

Team member and investment manager Dave Dorr believes that part of the recent housing boom in South Florida may have been driven by corrupt politicians overseas looking to launder money abroad, and his team was trying to find evidence of it.

About two dozen participants in the Miami headquarters of the Fusion Network coordinated with similar groups in 13 different cities across Mexico, Central and South America to track where public money flows.

Relying on data sets and coding tools, their projects ran the gamut from public money invested in education, to more obscure fields such as soccer and gambling. They coordinated with groups in other countries through video conferences and an online chat.

Organizers with the Miami chapter of the international group Hacks/Hackers believe it is the first time tech experts from across the U.S. and Latin America have participated simultaneously in a multicity hackathon.

... The Hacks/Hackers movement is seeking the participation of journalists with the idea of helping them to find and tell stories.

Read the rest at Saint Petersblog

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