With Bre-X stock halted on the financial markets, the company goes into meltdown. A terrible truth emerges and a scam on an epic scale is revealed. Investors are set to lose millions and entire pension funds will be wiped out. A golden dream turns into a waking nightmare. Please note, this episode contains difficult subject matter, including references to suicide, and contains some graphic content. The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam was first published in May 2024.
Mar 31, 2025•38 min•Season 7Ep. 8
On the ground at the Busang exploration site, the dream is collapsing and Bre-X geologist Michael de Guzman is needed for some major questioning. But where is he? As the hours tick by and he fails to arrive at Bre-X's site, news of a tragedy spreads. Those involved in the gold discovery need to get out of Indonesia and fast. Since this episode was recorded, John McBeth has sadly passed away. We are very grateful for his contribution to this story. Please note, this episode deals with upsetting s...
Mar 24, 2025•25 min•Season 7Ep. 7
World of Secrets presents, The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam. Bre-X’s new partners visit the Indonesian gold exploration site and make a shocking discovery. It will result in a reckoning half a world away at the mining industry’s party of the year — the Prospector and Developers Association Convention. Is the dream of a billion-dollar gold mine about to shatter? The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam was first published in May 2024.
Mar 17, 2025•30 min•Season 7Ep. 6
As the value of the Indonesian gold discovery skyrockets, it’s not just everyday investors who want in. Powerful players are drawn into the fight for the gold in Busang. But Bre-X, a small company, has only ever traded as a penny stock. Can it stand up to powerful rivals and play in the big leagues? The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam was first published in May 2024.
Mar 10, 2025•45 min•Season 7Ep. 5
It’s gold fever. Estimates put the Bre-X discovery at four times the size of the biggest known gold deposit — and investors are trying to cash in. A small Canadian town is swept up in the gold rush. But others are asking questions, including a hedge fund manager who goes to extraordinary lengths to get inside the Indonesia gold site. Since this episode was recorded, John McBeth has sadly passed away. We are very grateful for his contribution to this story. The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam was fi...
Mar 03, 2025•44 min•Season 7Ep. 4
World of Secrets presents The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam. Bre-X geologist Michael de Guzman is the man of the hour. He’s responsible for one of the biggest gold discoveries in the world, deep in the Indonesian jungle. It’s a find that sends Bre-X stock prices soaring to stratospheric heights. So his apparent death — a dramatic fall from a helicopter flying to the gold site — sends shockwaves around the world. Did he jump? Was he pushed? But the days following his death will prove even more sho...
Feb 24, 2025•40 min•Season 7Ep. 3
It was the biggest gold mine fraud of all time – a scam that devastated countless lives. But what really happened? Suzanne Wilton revisits the story that she just couldn’t let go of, to find answers about how the scam was perpetrated…and about the mysterious death of a geologist in the jungle. From the BBC World Service and CBC. The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam was first published in May 2024.
Feb 24, 2025•4 min•Season 7Ep. 2
World of Secrets teams are working on new investigations. Now you’ve finished listening to The Bad Guru, we are preparing six more seasons. Also, we have updates on previous investigations, including The Abercrombie Guys and Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods. Follow or subscribe now, so you get all future seasons and episodes. World of Secrets is the global investigations podcast from the BBC: Uncovering stories around the world and telling them, episode by episode, with gripping storytelling....
Feb 19, 2025•5 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Miranda returns to Paris after some surprising news about the guru Gregorian Bivolaru. This episode contains sexual content, allegations of sexual exploitation and some strong language. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Producer: Innes Bowen Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Jan 13, 2025•28 min•Season 6Ep. 7
“I was admitting it was a sex cult,” says Miranda. She meets up with her mother Penny to tell her what she's really been up to. When she tells her story to students from the yoga school where her journey started, the guru Gregorian denounces her as a liar. This episode contains sexual content. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Producer: Innes Bowen Commissioning...
Jan 06, 2025•29 min•Season 6Ep. 6
The guru Gregorian Bivolaru comes to the door in a dressing gown and welcomes Miranda in. He is her spiritual master, but she feels physically repulsed by him. “Don’t be superficial,” she tells herself as she steps into his Paris apartment. This episode contains explicit sexual content and some strong language. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Producer: Innes B...
Dec 30, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 5
“I don't have my passport. I don't have my phone. I don't have my bank card… I have nothing.” Miranda is driven through Paris with her eyes covered to meet the guru Gregorian Bivolaru at a secret location. Why is her spiritual guide in hiding? This episode contains sexual content. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Producer: Innes Bowen Commissioning Editor: Dan ...
Dec 23, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Miranda joins thousands of the guru Gregorian Bivolaru’s followers from around the world at a yoga festival in a Romanian seaside resort. It’s a two-week-long holiday and her food and accommodation is free. But is she being drawn into something darker? This episode contains explicit sexual content. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Producer: Innes Bowen Commissi...
Dec 16, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Miranda joins a yoga school in London. The classes make her feel amazing and the people make her feel loved. But at a weekend retreat in a country house, she gets a shock. This series contains explicit sexual content, some strong language and allegations of sexual exploitation. This episode contains explicit sexual content. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Prod...
Dec 09, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Miranda’s search for inner peace through yoga leads to allegations of grooming, trafficking and exploitation. “You just get sucked in so gradually... that you don't realize,” says her mother Penny. This series contains explicit sexual content, some strong language and allegations of sexual exploitation. Host: Cat McShane Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane Sound design: Melvin Rickarby Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister Executive Producer: Innes Bowen Com...
Dec 06, 2024•2 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Our investigation moves to a hotel car park in Norwich, England. What more new leads will this bring? We find the man himself, but what does Fox have to say about the tonne of cocaine found on his yacht? How does he respond to the claims from Brazilian police?
Nov 27, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Colin and Yemesi track down Fox's former crewmate, fresh out of a Brazilian jail and seemingly ready to talk. He travelled with Fox to Brazil on the Rich Harvest yacht and spent months there overseeing the first stage of its renovation, before the police raid and the arrests. So what can he tell us about his former employer? And what does he say about the drug smuggling and the sailors?
Nov 20, 2024•32 min•Season 5Ep. 6
A police chief in Brazil investigates Fox. He spends months overseeing surveillance of Fox’s yacht, then months more investigating how more than a tonne of cocaine ended up on board. For Andre Gonçalves, it begins with a tipoff from Britain’s National Crime Agency. He’s determined to fix what he sees as a grave injustice for the sailors after their arrest and harsh sentencing.
Nov 13, 2024•32 min•Season 5Ep. 5
The sailors are imprisoned in a country known as a “motorway service station” for cocaine cartels. Among certain police forces and crime agencies, the shortest sailing route from Latin America to Africa is known as drug traffickers’ Highway 10. Cape Verde lies at one end of it. The West African nation is used as a handy stop off point for smugglers to refuel or swap boats ahead of their journey on to Europe. For Daniel and Rodrigo though, it was somewhere to enjoy the beaches and the surf. But t...
Nov 06, 2024•26 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Daniel and Rodrigo’s dream voyage soon becomes a nightmare. Days into their Atlantic crossing, the boat’s motor stops working, one of their crewmates becomes too sick to get out of bed and cabin fever sets in. They’re forced to make an emergency stop in Cape Verde, the archipelago of islands off the coast of West Africa known for its natural beauty and its beaches. But they don't get the welcome they’re hoping for.
Oct 30, 2024•29 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Two Brazilian sailors prepare for a transatlantic voyage that will change their fortunes forever in ways they can’t imagine. Daniel and Rodrigo sign up for a life changing opportunity to crew a yacht from Brazil to Europe and gain the experience they both crave. But before they even set off, police and their sniffer dog raid the boat and spend hours searching for cocaine, which they think may have been hidden on board.
Oct 30, 2024•28 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Sailors, smugglers and millions of dollars of cocaine. A transatlantic trip of a lifetime goes wrong and lives change forever. It’s a journey from Brazil, which ends up in Cape Verde and prison. The question is: where is Fox? The new season is coming soon. Subscribe or follow now, so you get Finding Mr Fox and new episodes of previous seasons automatically.
Oct 29, 2024•3 min•Season 5Ep. 1
"Anyone who thinks they can exploit others by using the so-called casting couch system... prepare to trade that couch for a bed in federal prison." Prosecutors in New York send a stern message, as The Abercrombie Guys, Mike Jeffries and Matthew Smith, are arrested on charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution, along with their alleged fixer Jim Jacobson. They've denied wrongdoing. Reporter Rianna and producer Ruth head to New York to watch the court proceedings unfold, just a stone's...
Oct 26, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Many more women have made allegations of abuse and rape against Mohamed Al Fayed – including Margot, who was hired as his children’s nanny. We hear her story and find out about developments in the investigation since we published the first five episodes. Harrods says it is in the process of settling over 250 claims from women who say they were abused by its former owner. Shaimaa Khalil speaks to series consultant Keaton Stone, Erica Gornall the director of Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods, and Hann...
Oct 24, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Mohamed Al Fayed sells Harrods and retreats into a world of luxury villas and yachts. But will the women continue to stay silent about their allegations? Their stories weren’t all heard before his death but now they come together to speak out. Would the past catch up with a man who had now been portrayed in The Crown, the drama about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II? This season of World of Secrets is about sexual abuse, and includes descriptions which some listeners might find distressing. For a...
Sep 19, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Security cameras were everywhere - in Harrods and in a luxury apartment used by staff. There’s an atmosphere of paranoia. Vanity Fair magazine was investigating the rumours swirling around Mohamed Al Fayed. Would the truth about him be exposed, even as potential witnesses say they were intimidated? This season of World of Secrets is about sexual abuse, and includes descriptions which some listeners might find distressing. For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivo...
Sep 19, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Work trips to “the city of lights” turn dark, as the extent of Mohamed Al Fayed’s power and control becomes clear. Staying in the historic Villa Windsor in Paris should have been a dream come true, but the women are left terrified. This season of World of Secrets is about sexual abuse. And this episode contains some of the most graphic descriptions. For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivors of sexual abuse, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline. Presented by Cassie Cornis...
Sep 19, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Sophia is working in Harrods and is spotted by Mohamed Al Fayed. She’s handed an incredible career opportunity. Soon she moves to work with her billionaire boss in his executive suite. Not everything is as it seems. On the shop floor, Mohamed Al Fayed is known for the way he makes a dramatic entrance, flanked by security guards. “He’s coming, he’s coming”, staff call out, as they spring to attention. Celebrity customers in the 1990s, like pop superstar Michael Jackson, are shopping in the store....
Sep 19, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 2
A dream job offer arrives from Harrods, to the surprise of debutante teenager, Cheska. Why is one of the world’s most famous luxury shops interested in her? How do they know where she lives - where to send the letter? It’s the 1990s in London. Cheska and other rich girls are being introduced to high society, as part of an centuries old tradition. What should she do next? Soon after she gets the job offer, Cheska is working in owner Mohamed Al Fayed’s personal office in London’s exclusive Park La...
Sep 19, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 1
"I thought I was gonna die." A man fears for his life after attending an Abercrombie Guys event. Mike Jeffries time as Abercrombie and Fitch CEO comes to an abrupt end, marking the end of an era. Meanwhile, in 2024 the allegations against him and Matthew Smith continue to mount. "The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter," say their lawyers. #worldofsecrets
Sep 13, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 11
