SOLD OUT – WAITLIST AVAILABLE: The Basics of Follow the Money

Note: On-demand courses are fee-based, allowing us to sustainably support our team and trainers while continuing to provide free, high-quality investigative journalism training opportunities worldwide.

“Follow the Money” is a practical, in-depth course designed to equip journalists with the core skills needed to trace financial flows and uncover the economic forces behind corruption, organized crime, and abuse of power. Participants will learn how money moves through companies, bank accounts, contracts, and offshore structures. The key is to see how these trails can reveal who really benefits from wrongdoing. Grounded in proven investigative techniques, the course emphasizes turning complex financial data into clear, evidence-based findings that build stories with real public impact.

This hands-on course introduces you to key tools and methods, terminology, who are stakeholders and where to find them, and where the data is hidden, online and offline.

You will learn how to analyze financial records, company registries, public procurement data, and cross-border transactions. Journalists will strengthen their ability to follow paper trails, collaborate across borders, and use open-source data to expose hidden wealth. By the end of the course, participants will be prepared to pursue rigorous financial investigations that hold power to account and bring transparency to opaque systems.

Date: June 25, July 2, and July 9, 2026 (three consecutive Thursdays)

Time: 8:00 am –10:00 am EDT. Duration: two hours for each session, total of six hours

Number of trainees: 22

Trainer’s Bio: Jelena Cosic is the ICIJ’s training director, coordinator for Eastern European partnerships, and a data reporter. For the past seven years, she has worked on global ICIJ projects such as Pandora Papers, Cyprus Confidential, FinCEN Files, Deforestation Inc., China Targets,  Damascus Dossier and more. Cosic has trained over 2,000 investigative reporters worldwide. She has received several awards for investigative journalism, including a Certificate of Excellence, the Global Shining Light Award, an EU Prize for Investigative Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey, as well as several awards during her work with ICIJ, the Tom Renner Prize, a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

Training Modules

Module 1.1. Foundations of “Following the Money” and Understanding Money Trails

Description

This module introduces the core concept of financial investigations. It explains why “following the money” is central to investigative journalism, how illicit financial systems work, and introduces essential terminology such as beneficial ownership, proxies, and intermediaries. It sets the mindset needed for investigative work.

Financial investigations help uncover who benefits from corruption and how money flows across systems, often revealing hidden power structures.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the purpose and impact of “follow the money” investigations
• Identify key financial concepts and lingo (offshore entities, beneficial ownership, service providers, et al.)
• Recognize common patterns of illicit financial flows and structures used to hide wealth

Module 1.2. Finding Financial Data & Analyzing Financial Statements and Money Flows

Description

This module focuses on practical reporting techniques: where to find financial information — company registries, court records, public procurement databases and data leaks. Includes hands-on exploration of databases used by investigative reporters.

Learning Outcomes

• Locate and navigate key corporate databases
• Map money flows by using public records (company, land, court)
• Analyze financial documents to identify suspicious patterns and relationships

Module 1.3. Investigating Offshore Structures and Hidden Ownership

Description

Explores how money is hidden globally through offshore jurisdictions, shell companies, and intermediaries. Learn how to uncover beneficial ownership and tracking assets across borders.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how offshore financial systems work to uncover hidden assets
• Trace ownership through layered corporate structures
• Build a cross-border investigation

If you wish to attend the training, but the tickets are sold out, please fill in this waitlist form and we’ll be in touch.