© Jeff Hutchens for the Open Society Institute

Investigative journalist Ken Silverstein looks at hidden forms of corruption in the international energy business. As an Open Society Fellow, he studies how governments and oil companies skirt restrictions on bribery and other unethical practices. His most recent reportage chronicles the lavish lifestyles of the ruling family of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea.

Silverstein served as Washington editor of Harper’s magazine from 2006 to 2010. Previously on the staff of the Los Angeles Times, Silverstein has also written for Mother Jones, Wallpaper, Washington Monthly, the Nation, Slate, Salon, and many other publications. Silverstein is the author of Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship (Random House, 2008) and The Radioactive Boy Scout (Random House, 2005). In 2005, he received the Overseas Press Club Award for a series, co-written with T. Christian Miller, titled “The Politics of Petroleum” and published in the Los Angeles Times.