Robert Faturechi

Reporter

Photo of Robert Faturechi

Robert Faturechi is a reporter at ProPublica. He has written about how the rich avoid taxes, industry lobbying campaigns to block safety standards, conflicts of interest within government, self-dealing by political consultants and corporate donors targeting state elections officials. He broke stories on Sen. Richard Burr selling stock before the coronavirus market crash.

In 2020, he and two colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series of stories about avoidable deaths in the Navy and Marine Corps, and the failure of top commanders to heed warnings that could have saved lives.

His reporting has resulted in congressional hearings, new legislation, federal indictments and widespread reforms.

Before joining ProPublica, he was a reporter at The Los Angeles Times, where his work exposed inmate abuse, cronyism, secret cop cliques and wrongful jailings at the LA County Sheriff’s Department. He obtained an unprecedented cache of confidential personnel records that showed the agency knowingly hired dozens of cops with histories of serious misconduct. His stories helped lead to sweeping reforms at the nation’s largest jail system, criminal convictions of sheriff’s deputies and the resignation of the sheriff.

You can send him story tips and documents through email at [email protected] or on Signal/WhatsApp at (213) 271-7217.

A Top Mutual Fund Executive Made Millions for Himself Trading the Same Stocks His Giant Fund Was Trading

Confidential IRS data reveals that David Hoeft, chief investment officer of mutual fund giant Dodge & Cox, was one of many investment managers who bought and sold the same stocks their company was trading.

How Warren Buffett Privately Traded in Stocks That Berkshire Hathaway Was Buying and Selling

Buffett has long said such trading would be a conflict of interest, and Berkshire policies prohibit it. But confidential records show that, on at least three occasions, he sold millions of dollars of shares in stocks that Berkshire was trading.

The Biotech Edge: How Executives and Well-Connected Investors Make Exquisitely Timed Trades in Health Care Stocks

Secret IRS records reveal dozens of highly fortuitous biotech and health care trades. One executive bought shares in a corporate partner just before a sale, and an investor traded options right before a company’s revenues took off, netting millions.

Photos of Nude Children in Billionaire’s Email Prompted Investigation

Investigators cited the photos in order to begin the investigation into T. Denny Sanford, a South Dakota businessman. ProPublica fought for three years to get the records unsealed.

Wealthy Executives Make Millions Trading Competitors’ Stock With Remarkable Timing

Never-before-seen IRS records show that CEOs are sometimes making multimillion-dollar bets on the stocks of direct competitors and partners — and doing so with exquisite timing.

Sen. Burr Cited COVID When He Dumped Shares Ahead of Stock Market Crash, According to FBI Records

New details have emerged about the now-closed investigation, including repeated calls to his brother-in-law, who also dumped stock.

Child Porn Possession Investigation Into South Dakota Billionaire Closed With No Charges

Search warrants were obtained in the investigation into T. Denny Sanford in 2019 and 2020. ProPublica won a legal fight to access the records.

Child Porn Probe of Billionaire Businessman Denny Sanford Continues at State and Federal Level, Court Records Show

Authorities said the investigation of South Dakota’s richest man, first revealed by ProPublica, is still active and began with a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Court Records Show That Emails and Phone Data Were Searched in Child Porn Probe of Billionaire Denny Sanford

ProPublica won access to search warrants showing a child pornography investigation of South Dakota’s richest man, confirming our reporting from last year.

How These Ultrawealthy Politicians Avoided Paying Taxes

IRS records reveal how Gov. Jim Justice, Gov. Jared Polis, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other wealthy political figures slashed their taxes using strategies unavailable to most of their constituents.

Burr’s Brother-in-Law Called Stock Broker, One Minute After Getting Off Phone With Senator

According to the SEC, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had material nonpublic information about coronavirus impact. He and his brother-in-law dumped stock before the market dropped in March 2020.

How the Trump Tax Law Created a Loophole That Lets Top Executives Net Millions by Slashing Their Own Salaries

The 2017 tax cuts made it more attractive for certain company owners to be paid in profits instead of wages. Some cut their own wages, expanding a loophole that was already costing the U.S. billions.

Secret IRS Files Reveal How Much the Ultrawealthy Gained by Shaping Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Tax Cut”

Billionaire business owners deployed lobbyists to make sure Trump’s 2017 tax bill was tailored to their benefit. Confidential IRS records show the windfall that followed.

The Billionaire Playbook: How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Millions in Taxes

Owners like Steve Ballmer can take the kinds of deductions on team assets — everything from media deals to player contracts — that industrialists take on factory equipment. That helps them pay lower tax rates than players and even stadium workers.

Leading Manhattan DA Candidate Has Repeatedly Paid Virtually No Federal Income Taxes

Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who donated $8 million to her own campaign, and her hedge fund manager husband paid nothing (or almost nothing) to the IRS four times in six years.

ProPublica’s Tax Revelations Lead to Calls for Reforms — and Investigation

The Secret IRS Files series has already sparked a conversation about the fairness of the U.S. tax code and raised privacy concerns.

Sen. David Perdue Sold His Home to a Finance Industry Official Whose Organization Was Lobbying the Senate

The same year FINRA was lobbying the Senate on a bill, one of its board governors paid Perdue $1.8 million for his D.C. townhouse. Perdue sits on the Senate Banking Committee, which oversaw the bill.

Georgia Senator David Perdue Privately Pushed for a Tax Break for Rich Sports Teamowners

It’s unclear why Senator Perdue was interested in tax regulation that would impact only a tiny set of the richest Americans. The effort, which wasn’t successful, could have helped several of his donors, including fellow senator Kelly Loeffler.

DOJ Frees Federal Prosecutors to Take Steps That Could Interfere With Elections, Weakening Long-standing Policy

In an internal announcement, the Justice Department created an exception to a decadeslong policy meant to prevent prosecutors from taking overt investigative steps that might affect the outcome of the vote.

The Justice Department May Have Violated Attorney General Barr’s Own Policy Memo

In a memo from May, the attorney general reminded Justice Dept. prosecutors to avoid partisan politics. Then a U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania announced an election investigation that had partisan overtones.

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