A con man who snagged an Ebola cleanup contract and a pig farmer who turned to arms dealing. A warehouse empire and laws that imprison battered women. A recluse at the heart of a Hollywood scandal and a coal miner dead from black lung. The year in Buzzfeed News investigations.
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Mr. Ten Percent: The Man Who Built — and Bilked — American Soccer — Ken Bensinger
American soccer has become an athletic and economic powerhouse, due substantially to the contributions of Chuck Blazer. Along the way, Blazer raked in more than $21 million from the sport, much of it paid to offshore shell companies. He ultimately would be called a swindler by the very organization that he led for 21 years.
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The Elusive Man at the Heart of a Hollywood Sex Abuse Scandal — Ellie Hall, Nicolas Medina Mora, David Noriega
Missing from all the coverage of the Bryan Singer scandal was the man who was at the very heart of it: Marc Collins-Rector. Last seen publicly in 2007 in London, he managed to disappear. But Buzzfeed News found him. This is the tale of how the the man who once raised at least $24 million for his video streaming startup and partied with Hollywood's A list came to live alone and infirm in a European port city.
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How a Pig Peddler Helped the U.S. Flood War Zones With Guns — Aram Roston
The U.S. government is one of the world’s biggest buyers of AK-47s and other Soviet bloc weapons, which it has poured into Afghanistan, Iraq, and other hot spots. The tale of Ara Dolarian, a one-time pig-peddler from Fresno, highlights how the U.S. relies on small but important defense-contracting bottom fish to arm some of the world’s most violent and unstable military forces.
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