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For months, Selam Gebrekidan, an investigative reporter for The New York Occasions, would stare at a maze of handwritten diagrams, drawings and charts on a wall inside her Hong Kong condo. She was attempting to piece collectively how precisely one of many world’s largest cash laundering networks operates.

“I wanted a visible support as I used to be breaking it down into steps,” she defined. Her effort was put to good use: This week, Ms. Gebrekidan and Pleasure Dong, a reporter-researcher who covers China for The Occasions, printed a posh investigation that gives an inside look at how some scammers launder money and get away with it. For his or her article, Ms. Gebrekidan and Ms. Dong spoke to just about a half-dozen scammers and their launderers, after which described every step of the laundering course of.

“We wished to make the story accessible for readers,” Ms. Gebrekidan stated of the investigation, which focuses on a single laundering community in Southeast Asia. “However first we needed to perceive the complexities ourselves.”

In a video name from Hong Kong, Ms. Gebrekidan and Ms. Dong mentioned interviewing the scammers and cash launderers for his or her article and the questions nonetheless prime of thoughts for them. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.

What initially led you to pursue this story?

SELAM GEBREKIDAN I began trying into cash laundering broadly about 9 months in the past. Pleasure and I wished to grasp how the prison underworld works.

We had obtained ideas that town of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, like numerous different on line casino hubs in that area, was a scorching spot for scamming and cash laundering, particularly after the pandemic. After I visited, I used to be struck by the variety of unfinished buildings on each road. The higher flooring in these empty buildings had fluorescent lights on, all night time lengthy. I stored pondering: Who’s up there? And what are they doing?

It took us some time to achieve individuals’s belief, however then, in January, we acquired a break. A lot of criminals agreed to speak to us.

How did you achieve individuals’s belief?

JOY DONG We discovered somebody who was prepared to make introductions within the native scammer group, which was extremely useful. We shared meals with cash launderers and scammers. I’ve a sense that they’re fairly lonely and wish to exhibit what they’re doing to outsiders who gained’t choose them. It’s like they’re boasting to a good friend about how a lot cash they make and the way good they’re.

Did you conduct most of your interviews in particular person?

GEBREKIDAN We had no less than one in-person assembly with everybody; nobody goes to speak to you on the cellphone about these items, often. They had been virtually all at eating places. We principally acquired a tour of various Chinese language cuisines — Fujian to Hunan to Sichuan.

One night time after dinner, we watched a nine-minute fireworks present on the seaside. It was proper earlier than the lunar New 12 months and it appeared very costly. Later, we discovered that the scammers mild fireworks to have a good time their largest swindles. We had been shocked as a result of each time the fireworks go off, somebody has seemingly misplaced their life financial savings on the opposite finish.

How did you steadiness writing a compelling narrative with the truth that these are criminals victimizing individuals?

GEBREKIDAN We spoke to victims who wished to grasp: How did they transfer my cash so shortly? Why can’t I get it again? So we began attempting to reply these questions first.

Some readers wrote to us after the story got here out, speaking about how they misplaced religion on the planet and the psychological disaster they skilled after they had been focused. Like, who can I belief? Can I even belief myself to make the correct selections anymore? We had been attempting to indicate individuals that there’s a complete system that’s designed to make you are feeling completely helpless.

What was your largest problem?

DONG After we discovered the Telegram channels the place nameless customers promote cash laundering companies, we started attempting to decode the messages. All the things’s in Chinese language, however a few of the lingo didn’t make sense. So we requested some former scammers, they usually defined it to us. Then we acquired a cache of information — a sort of money-laundering handbook — from whistle-blowers, which had a dictionary of scammer language that we adopted to decipher extra messages.

What was your most stunning discovering?

GEBREKIDAN How brazen all of it is. Once you go to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, you gained’t imagine what number of S.U.V.s you see on the road — it’s not usually that you simply see these huge American vehicles in Asia, or anyplace on the planet. It’s like, the place’s this cash coming from?

You each plan to proceed reporting on this business. What questions do you hope to reply nonetheless?

GEBREKIDAN As we had been reporting, we acquired glimpses of how different elements of the laundering business operated that aren’t reported elsewhere — and, as you’ll be able to think about, we had been having a tough time breaking by way of. However we wish to perceive how the system works. We wish to present our readers that this world may be very a lot world. It’s equal to worldwide commerce in that it barely pays consideration to borders. Issues are performed in hours, or generally, seconds.