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Project Brazen is a journalism start-up company and content studio co-founded by bestselling authors and Pulitzer Prize finalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope.

Overview
With a slate of podcasts, books, documentaries, TV shows and films in development, its debut Project Brazen Original podcast “Fat Leonard” launched on October 5, 2021 around a corruption scandal and ongoing investigation within the United States Navy. Project Brazen founders Wright and Hope were collaborators at the Wall Street Journal where they led coverage of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, a $6 billion fraud which brought down the Malaysian prime minister and led to Goldman Sachs paying the largest ever penalty under U.S. bribery laws. Together they co-wrote the international bestseller Billion Dollar Whale (2018) about Malaysian businessman Jho Low, the fraud’s mastermind, who ensnared banks, Hollywood celebrities and politicians in his schemes. Beau Willimon, creator of House of Cards, is overseeing the development of the book into a limited TV series alongside SK Global, maker of the film Crazy Rich Asians. On April 28, Project Brazen announced it had entered an overall deal with audio content distributor PRX to launch podcasts over the following year, including a series that premiered on May 5, “Resistance: Stories from Ukraine,” documenting stories of everyday Ukrainians who have had war blast through their lives, as well as a limited series set to debut in the summer of 2022, “Kabul Falling,” centered around the Taliban’s consolidation of power across Afghanistan. The company partners with journalists around the world to develop podcasts, documentaries and other narrative non-fiction projects.

Fat Leonard podcast
Project Brazen’s debut podcast Fat Leonard explored the ongoing investigation into a national security breach involving the United States Navy. Hosted by Wright, Leonard Francis spoke exclusively for the first time. Over more than 20 hours of audio, Francis detailed how he secured defense contracts worth tens of millions of dollars in exchange for cash bribes, escorts and luxury items. The podcast revealed a Navy cover-up of the case, the prosecution of which has involved nearly 30 officers but spared top admirals whom Francis claims took gifts and favors. The podcast also features other voices, including prominent women who share their stories of misogyny and sexual abuse in the United States military. In December 2021, ahead of the first public trials of Navy officers involved with Francis, counsel for the officers sought to subpoena Wright’s raw interview tapes with Francis. Project Brazen fought the subpoena on the grounds it was an attack on journalistic freedoms under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But the judge ordered the company to hand over the tapes. Project Brazen complied but also made the tapes available publicly.

Resistance: Stories from Ukraine podcast
Hosted by Emmy-nominated freelance journalist, photographer, filmmaker, and National Geographic Explorer Laurel Chor, Project Brazen’s second podcast Resistance: Stories from Ukraine followed Chor uncovering the stories of everyday people who fought back after having their lives uprooted due to the war in Ukraine. By blending the current news cycle with narrative storytelling, “Resistance” offered unique perspectives of the events in Ukraine in real time. The production team also included documentary filmmakers Nicholas Brennan and Arman Dzidzovic, as well as producers Clair Urbahn, Rowan Slaney, Soobin Kim and Giulia Franchi. Project Brazen also published a short documentary from Chor and Dzidzovic on May 12 which followed Chor in the towns of Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka in the days following the end of the Russian occupation.

Whale Hunting
Project Brazen publishes a weekly newsletter, Whale Hunting, that explores the hidden worlds of wealth and power. It broke the news that Jared Kushner was in talks to receive $2 billion of investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, details that were later confirmed by the New York Times. The newsletter also includes an ongoing investigation into the richest person on earth. It explored how Changpeng Zhao had quietly become one of the wealthiest people on the planet thanks to his large stake in the cryptocurrency Binance. Other media, including Forbes and Bloomberg, subsequently raised their valuations for his wealth.