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Zutaten investigativer Techrecherche

Acht Open Source Geschichten, die einen bleibenden Eindruck hinterlassen, werden auf ihre Erfolgsrezepte hin untersucht.

ie Prinzregententorte zählt sicher zu den bekanntesten und beliebtesten Torten im Süden Deutschlands. Sie ist zart und elegant, und hinterlässt bei manch einem Genießer des süßen Gifts (wie dem Autor dieses Posts) einen bleibenden Eindruck.

Unter den Münchner Torten ist sie ein Star. Sie wurde von Heinrich Georg Erbshäuser, ein Konditoreigründer und Meister des 19. Jahrhundert zu Ehren von Prinzregent Luitpold, kreiert. Dann dauerte es nicht lange bis sie zum regelrechten Dauerbrenner wurde. Heutzutage ist sie in den meisten teuren Cafés, Kuchenläden oder Pâtisserien nicht mehr wegzudenken.

Erbshäuser, 1890 zum königlich-bayerischen Hoflieferanten von Prinz Ludwig ernannt, stapelte sieben dünne, mit Schokoladencreme verbundene Sandteig-Böden aufeinander. Die Architektur der Torte, das Wechselspiel zwischen Böden und Buttercreme, ist der zentrale Bestandteil der Erfolgstinktur. Damit wurde die Torte zum Schlager. Bis heute beschweren sich Torten und Backliebhaber einerseits darüber, wie schwierig es ist, die Prinzregententorte backtechnisch richtig hinzubekommen. Andererseits, schwärmen viele davon, wie sich die heikle Arbeit doch für diesen speziellen Genuss lohnt.

Wozu all das Gerede über Backen und Torten? Genauso wie die Zutatenarchitektur der Prinzregententorte (die sie so einzigartig lecker macht, das ist purer Meinungsjournalismus) haben Investigativgeschichten auch technische Zutaten, die zum Erfolg führen.

Breit gefasst können das sichere auch Geheimdokumente, Datenleaks, Gerichtsakten etc. aber auch zumal Interviews mit Quellen sein, an die keiner so einfach herankommt. Manchmal jedoch ist es die Summe technischen Werkzeuge, die bei einer Recherche zum Einsatz kommen.

Für den technischen Teil heißt das im Detail zu analysieren was den “Durchbruch” in einer Recherche bringt. Immer häufiger ist der entscheidende Teil neue Erkenntnisse die auf Daten aus dem Internet beruht, sogenanntes Open Source Intelligence, kurz OSINT.

So ist der Bereich des OSINT Journalismus in den letzten Jahren explodiert. Denn gerade er liefert oft, an kritischen Stellen, wichtige Resultate, die Journalisten weiterhilft. Oft passiert das genau dann, wenn der Chefredakteure gerade entscheidet, ob die Recherche weiterlaufen soll oder nicht.

Da gibt es Informationen und Datenquellen die wie eine geheime Tinktur in einem Backrezept zusammenwirken. Sie lassen eine Geschichte funktionieren, oder eben nicht. Sicher: Mit neuen technischen Mitteln sind ganz neue Rechercheansätze möglich. Viele denken fälschlicherweise dass wer OSINT kann, der hats eh leicht. Aber wie beim Backen gilt. Es reicht oft nicht die Zutat nur zu besitzen. Man muss auch wissen wie man sie am besten in den Teig einarbeitet.

Im Anschluss also eine Auswahl von 8 technischen Geschichten, die offene Daten und digitale forensische Werkzeuge verwenden und einige wichtige Lehren offenlegen. Einiger Journalisten sind da mehr, andere weniger erfolgreich (wie im Beispiel Bamberger Hörnla). Die Auswahl basiert auf der Qualität der Rechercheansätze, aber auch auf der Vielfalt und Extravaganz in der Anwendung der OSINT Quellen.

Auch wichtig: Dass die Erkenntnisse, die durch online-forensischen Arbeit gewonnen wird, kein Nebenschauplatz darstellen sollte. Diese Geschichten nutzen OSINT als Hauptbestandteil der Beweisführung. Ohne diese Arbeit gäbe es also keine Geschichten.

Wir fragen: Warum und wieso funktionieren diese Geschichten überhaupt? Was ist die entscheidende Zutat, der technische Teil, den die Journalisten weitergebracht hat und warum?

Dazu gibt es jeweils ein Backrezept, ein Vorschlag eines Desserts passend zum Standort der Geschichte.

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More Russian Linked Lobbying in UK Parliament

Further investigations by Iain Campbell reveal key Russian businessmen tied to Parliamentary groups involved in tech and healthcare data

The launch of a Westminster lobbying group by a business associate of Roman Abramovich “certainly raises causes for concern” the former chair of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, Dominic Grieve told Byline Times. This paper revealed that Sergey Bratukhin, a close associate of sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, has been a key partner of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Longevity, helping to launch the group in 2019 under the name ‘Sergey Young’.

APPGs are forums run by Members of the House of Commons and Lords that lobby the Government in relation to particular areas of interest – whether foreign affairs subjects related to a particular country, or an aspect of public policy. They produce reports that are often endorsed by ministers, and they are commonly advised and even directly managed by private firms and charities.

The APPG for Longevity – the science of extending the human lifespan – is chaired by former senior Cabinet minister, Conservative MP Damian Green, while other members include former Head of the Home Civil Service Lord Bob Kerslake, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Paul Holmes MP, Jonathan Lord MP, and five other members of the House of Lords.

The APPG produced an influential report in February 2020 on NHS data usage, including ‘opening up’ this data to stimulate innovation, that was endorsed by the-then Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Byline Times can now reveal that there are further questions to be asked about the overseas links, and the private sector conflicts of interest, of other individuals that have been associated with this parliamentary lobbying group and others like it.

The Skolkovo Connection

Bratukhin’s journey into medical science and longevity seems to have been influenced by Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation, a business incubator set up on the outskirts of Moscow in the early 2010s and led until 2018 by now-sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, which in part focused on life sciences and artificial intelligence (AI) as key areas of study.

Skolkovo built a large science campus on the outskirts of Moscow and encouraged Western tech companies such as IBM and Microsoft to establish research centres within the facility, alongside Russian startups. The centre also received funding from Abramovich’s Millhouse Capital.

In 2014, the assistant special agent in charge of the Boston division of the FBI warned that the Skolkovo Foundation “may be a means for the Russian Government to access our nation’s sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications”. There is no evidence that any of the individuals or firms mentioned in this article were aware of this threat, when they invested.

Bratukhin has been a visitor to the Skolkovo business park for numerous events and his firms have invested in businesses established there, including a startup called Insilico Medicine, run by the young scientist Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, which describes itself as an “artificial intelligence-driven” healthcare-technology company.

Early investors in Insilico also included Jim Mellon, a business partner of Brexit money-man Arron Banks and an early supporter of UKIP. Mellon, who made his money in Russia in the early 1990s, visited Insilico’s offices in Skolkovo and promoted the company through his Master Investor events in London where Dr Zhavoronkov has appeared several times as a key speaker.

Dr Zhavoronkov has been listed as an advisor to former Russian spy Anna Chapman’s UMA Fund, though he claims that he never had a formal relationship with the firm and that the UMA Fund “just used my picture on the website”.

Dr Zhavoronkov also helped to establish the Biogerontology Research Foundation (BRF) in the UK in 2008, which claims it is “the UK’s leading non-profit focused on longevity”.

Mellon joined the BRF board in 2017 and the BRF claims it was “instrumental in the initial groundwork and establishment” of the APPG for Longevity.

Dr Zhavoronkov has held a role on the advisory board of the APPG, sitting alongside another Insilico employee, Polina Mamoshina, as well as Sergey Bratukhin. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Insilico, Mellon, Dr Zhavoronkov or any of his employees.

Insilico Medicine told Byline Times that the firm has “ceased all operations in Russia. The company firmly believes in the importance of scientific collaboration across borders in order to accelerate discovery and innovation. While the company remains committed to global scientific research and innovation, we have withdrawn all company operations from the Skolkovo Innovation Centre in Russia, sold the local subsidiary (which represented under 3% of global R&D spending), and relocated the remaining team members to other regional sites.” 

One of the managing trustees of the BRF is Dmitry Kaminskiy, a Moldovan businessman who was listed in March 2021 as the “co-director of the secretariat” of the APPG for Longevity and is listed as one of the advisors on its February 2020 ‘Health of the Nation’ report, alongside Dr Zhavoronkov. Kaminskiy says that his company, Ageing Analytics, provided data to the private health firm that manages the APPG for Longevity. The APPG claims that neither has been involved in APPG meetings since 2019.

Kaminskiy and Dr Zhavoronkov made headlines together for betting each other $1 million about who would die later.

Kaminskiy, who has also said that he will award $1 million to anyone reaching their 123rd birthday, first came to prominence as the chairman of i-bank.ru, a Russian bank which collapsed in 2016. Kaminskiy and other investors had purchased a 70% stake in i-bank in 2015, with Kaminskiy personally holding 10% of the company. As the new CEO, he pledged to invest $1 billion in the bank to create “the most powerful IT-team in Russia” which he would “motivate to work as in Space X or Tesla – 100 hours a week, 15 hours a day.”

In 2016, the Russian Central Bank withdrew i-bank’s licence, saying, “Interactive Bank (LLC) pursued a high-risk credit policy associated with the placement of funds in low-quality assets. An adequate assessment of the risks taken and a reliable reflection of the value of the bank’s assets led to the emergence of grounds for the credit institution to take measures to prevent insolvency (bankruptcy). At the same time, the bank was involved in conducting dubious operations.”

The administrators of the bank accused its former management of embezzlement – though it’s unknown if any former executives were charged.

No criminal charges were brought against Kaminskiy and he states that he assisted the authorities with their investigations. He told Byline Times that: “some of the managers representing the interests of certain other shareholders were using the bank for very risky financial and potentially even illegal operations,” but that he was not responsible for any wrongdoing.

Kaminskiy (listed here under the name Dmitrii Caminschii) was also revealed as an economic advisor to then-Moldovan President Igor Dodon in February 2018.

Dodon supported the Russian ‘federalisation’ plan of Moldova, which proposed stationing up to 2,000 Russian troops in the breakaway Transnistria region. The region, which sits along the country’s border with Ukraine, currently holds around 500 Russian troops who are present as ‘peacekeepers’ and has been under Russian control since 1992.

In May this year, Dodon was arrested and accused by Moldovan prosecutors of “illicit enrichment, passive corruption, illegal party financing and (treason), which have taken place since 2014.”

Kaminskiy said that his role as an advisor to Dodon was brief and that he does not and has not had any financial relationship with Dodon or his associates.

Sergey Bratukhin did not respond to Byline Times’ multiple requests for comment.

Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain

In addition to supporting the BRF and the APPG for Longevity, Kaminskiy has collaborated with two other parliamentary lobbying groups – the APPG on Blockchain, and the APPG on Artificial Intelligence – through the Big Innovation Centre.

The Big Innovation Centre, co-run by Lancaster University, hosts the APPG on Artificial Intelligence website and has organised several events around blockchain and big data. To date, the Big Innovation Centre has provided £738,000 of services to the APPG on AI and £354,000 to the APPG on Blockchain, the funding for these services paid for by corporate sponsors such as Capita and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The secretariat of the APPGs on Blockchain and AI used data analysis services from Kaminskiy’s Deep Knowledge Analytics, a collection of loss making or dormant companies – though Kaminskiy says that these services were provided free of charge. Kaminskiy personally presented reports on the UK blockchain and AI industries in Parliament in 2018.

Kaminskiy told Byline Times that: “We have companies that are generating profit in Switzerland and Asia, and we have several companies (in the UK in particular) that are focused on R&D and development of technological solutions. We invest our own money into those companies, and while they are not yet generating profit, they are generating significant IP (intellectual property), and this is very typical for most tech-focused businesses.”

During the pandemic, Deep Knowledge Analytics produced “big data analysis” reports on the global spread of COVID-19, and has published a list ranking countries by ‘safety’ from the virus, which has been quoted by governments and news outlets around the world.

Despite this, a senior Israeli academic described the studies as “the mother of fake news”, after the Deep Knowledge Ventures analysis declared Israel as the safest country in the world in March and April 2020, shortly before a sharp rise in cases in the nation.

Awaiting approval from UK banking regulators is also Kaminskiy’s Longevity Card venture, an online bank account which seeks to sync to your FitBit and record your key health data on a daily basis in return for discounts on “longevity healthcare products”.

NHS Data

The private health interests of Kaminskiy and Dr Zhavoronkov – the latter of whom runs the healthcare technology firm Insilico – are particularly relevant in the context of the APPG for Longevity’s work on NHS data access.

The lobbying group published its Health of the Nation report in February 2020, recommending the opening up of the “UK’s rich and diverse datasets” to encourage research and innovation.

As the report says: “We should apply the lessons from Open Banking where banking data is shared and has stimulated the fintech ecosystem. There are opportunities to harness datasets across the life-course and be a global leader in using longitudinal data and AI to develop new products and services.”

It adds that: “An open data approach will maximise federated open market innovation, competition and efficiency.”

The paper was lauded as “timely and brilliant” by the-then Health Secretary Matt Hancock when he attended its launch. The APPG maintains that it has not advocated for private firms to exploit or benefit from NHS data. 

The APPG claims that Kaminskiy and Dr Zhavoronkov both advised the group on this report – though Kaminskiy claims that he stopped advising the group before the report was initiated. Whichever is true, it is clear that he delivered a report on longevity in Parliament in May 2019 – at the launch of the APPG – pictured alongside Hancock and Damian Green.

The Government has in recent years pushed for private firms to have a greater role in accessing and processing NHS data – with Hancock having pledged a “digital revolution” of the health service.

Past and present members of the APPG, such as Conservative peer Lord James O’Shaughnessy and the Health of the Nation co-author, Tina Woods, run data-led private healthcare firms. Indeed, the APPG is managed by Collider Health – a private healthcare firm run by Woods – while O’Shaughnessy joined Newmarket Strategy, likewise a private healthcare firm, as a senior partner in March 2021. O’Shaughnessy took a leave of absence from Parliament in late 2021 and is not believed to have been active in the APPG since then.

The APPG’s April 2021 report, ‘Levelling Up Health’, further underlined the unique value of NHS data, stating: “We must harness the NHS’s great data assets much more… Its potential power is immense for policy, research, and monitoring.”

Kaminskiy, for his part, told Byline Times that he agrees with calls to better regulate APPGs, saying that “better transparency and a straightforward means of neutralising potential conflicts of interests either from the view of commercial entities or any foreign interests,” are needed.

Dr Zhavoronkov told Byline Times that “At Insilico, we have a policy of not using human biological data unless it comes from public repositories. We [have] never used any non-public data from the UK or anywhere else.”

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Close Associate of Roman Abramovich Key Partner of UK Parliamentary Group

A businessman with ties to the sanctioned Russian oligarch is listed as a partner and advisor to a Westminster group containing senior MPs and peers

A Russian businessman with close ties to sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich was one of the founding partners of a UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), Byline Times can reveal.

Until April 2022, Sergey Bratukhin served as a director of Norilsk Nickel, appointed to the board to reportedly represent Abramovich’s Millhouse Capital. He was until recently also the president of Invest AG, a Moscow-based investment company which controls the assets of Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov, who ran Russia’s largest steel producer, Evraz, and have this month been sanctioned by the UK Government. The pair are “known to be business associates of Roman Abramovich,” according to the UK Government.

Bratukhin has also sat on the board of Russian Forest Products (RFP) in which both Invest AG and Abramovich are significant shareholders. He is listed here as also being a board member of the Amur Shipping Company, which transports the forest products of parent company RFP Group. It also appears that Bratukhin is a shareholder via an investment firm in Renaissance Insurance, holding a financial stake alongside Abramovich’s Millhouse Capital, and Invest AG.

Norilsk Nickel has recently announced that it is looking to develop new Lithium mining sites that will aid the Russian war effort in Ukraine, while Bratukhin personally welcomed President Vladimir Putin on a tour of RFP facilities in Amursk in 2017. It also seems that Bratukhin appeared alongside Putin at the plenary session of the conference of regional branches of the United Russia Party – Putin’s party – in the Far Eastern Federal District in 2010.

In the West, Bratukhin calls himself Sergey Young, and portrays himself as a successful venture capital investor in bio-technology companies. He speaks at conferences around the world discussing longevity, the science of extending human lifespans through the appliance of new technology to improve diagnoses, drug efficacy and treatments.

He explained in an interview in 2021 that he “created this whole Sergey Young guy” to overcome “anti-Russian prejudices”. He added that “you need to be mentally healthy to support a couple of personas”. As shown here, the name ‘Sergey Young’ is in fact a trademark belonging to Sergey Bratukhin. Young’s LinkedIn page lists that he attended Warwick Business School, matching his profile in Norilsk Nickel annual accounts.

In the US, Bratukhin has been described as the “right hand man” of Peter Diamandis, one of the founders of the X-Prize Foundation, the world-renowned scheme that runs competitions intended to encourage technological development to benefit humanity. Bratukhin also founded Peak State Ventures, a San Francisco-based investment firm, and heads a bio-technology investment outfit called the Longevity Vision Fund.

In the UK, Bratukhin is listed as one of the sponsors/partners of the APPG for Longevity and was one of the individuals who “advised the [APPG] on all matters related to the Health of the Nation Strategy published in February 2020”. His Longevity Vision Fund is also listed on the APPG website as a “key supporter”. Bratukhin’s personal website says that he is a “Financial Advisory Board member of the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity, which is helping to shape a national life extension strategy.”

The APPG is chaired by former senior Cabinet minister, Conservative MP Damian Green. Other members of the APPG include former Head of the Home Civil Service Lord Bob Kerslake, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Paul Holmes MP, Jonathan Lord MP, and five other members of the House of Lords.

APPGs are informal cross-party groups, focused on particular areas of interest, “run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords”.

In a video on the APPG’s website, posted in November 2019, Bratukhin is quoted as saying that “for me, the most important thing is just the existence of the APPG. And I’m always using the UK and our group as an example where [a] government and parliament is trying to take a much bigger role in extending not only lifespan but also the health-span of its citizens.”

The APPG told Byline Times that, “Sergey Young was briefly involved in the APPG in 2019 as a finance expert in longevity on one of the many meetings we ran that year involving well over 100 individuals. Since 2020 he has had no involvement whatsoever in the APPG.”

It appears that the APPG is understating the initial role of Bratukhin, given that he was previously listed as one of the “first two” partners of the group. A video listed on the APPG’s website shows Bratukhin attending the launch of its ‘Health of the Nation’ report in February 2020.

‘Improper Influence’

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who is a member of the committee of MPs scrutinising the Government’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, which has been partly motivated by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, described this story as “extremely concerning”.

Kinnock added that: “All political parties and APPGs in Parliament must undertake comprehensive due diligence checks so that they can verify the source of the money that their donors are investing. This is particularly important if there is a potential risk of the source of funding being linked to a foreign hostile state.”

The UK Government imposed sanctions on former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich in March, accusing him of having “clear connections” to Vladimir Putin’s regime. On announcing the sanctions, then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that “oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy or society. With their close links to Putin they are complicit in his aggression.”

The APPG for Longevity has produced two reports advocating greater NHS data sharing. The NHS data set is one of the most valuable repositories of health records in the world, holding cradle-to-grave data across multiple generations.

As mentioned, Bratukhin attended the launch of its ‘Health of the Nation’ report in Parliament in February 2020, speaking of the need for the APPG to “tackle the Government” on the issue of longevity.

The report advocated the establishment of an ‘open life’ data framework to harness datasets and stimulate business innovation. The paper, which the-then Health Secretary Matt Hancock lauded as “timely and brilliant”, advocated applying “the lessons from Open Banking where banking data is shared and has stimulated the fintech ecosystem. There are opportunities to harness datasets across the life-course and be a global leader in using longitudinal data and AI to develop new products and services.”

The report led to the launch of ‘Business For Health’ – a non-profit company aimed at “building a business coalition” to invest in “the health and economic resilience of the UK”. One of Business For Health’s advisors is the APPG for Longevity’s strategic advisory board chair Lord Geoffrey Filkin, while Hancock said he was “delighted” that the group had been formed.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been approached for comment. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing or complicity on the part of Diamandis, Peak State Ventures or the Longevity Vision Fund. 

Bratukhin has not been sanctioned by the Government. He did not respond to our multiple requests for comment.

APPGs have proliferated over the past decade – their number now standing at 744, with their memberships formed of MPs, peers, representatives of non-profit organisations, and private firms.

Despite concerns raised by Whitehall’s lobbying tsar in 2016 about the use of such groups to bypass lobbying rules, little has been done to tighten restrictions on their access to MPs, or to consider how such groups are able to influence Government policies.

The Parliamentary Standards Committee published an interim report in May about the regulation of APPGs, stating that: “the expert evidence… received to our inquiry shows that the risk of improper access and influence by hostile foreign actors through APPGs is real, though difficult to measure,” and conceded that “there is also evidence that this risk has already materialised”.

The report went on to warn that “if left unchecked, APPGs could represent the next great parliamentary scandal, with commercial entities effectively buying access to and influence of parliamentarians and decision-makers”.

This is echoed by the writer and security specialist Ed Lucas, who told Byline Times that: “APPGs like this sound anodyne, but in reality, they’re a gaping hole in our political system offering scrutiny-free access to decision-making and our decision-makers for all manner of questionable individuals and entities.”