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Private jets, deserted shores and an unbuilt resort: alleged links to sanctioned ‘scam’ empire revealed in Timor-Leste (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 13 hours ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

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Warning: long read.

Guests were enticed with the promise of luxury villas overlooking aquamarine seas; a world-first crypto resort where the tech elite could commune over the latest digital innovation in opulent surrounds.

The promotional material from June last year pitched a sprawling, futuristic development that would hug the coastline of Timor-Leste, one of the world’s poorest countries, and donate a percentage of profits to philanthropy.

But in February, when a joint investigative team visited the proposed site of the AB Digital Technology Resort – separated from Dili airport by a barbed-wire fence – we found an empty plot dotted with shrubs.

The planned resort is at the heart of a four-month investigation by the Guardian and Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project into an obscure cryptocurrency and blockchain network known as AB.

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