Debbie Cenziper

Washington D.C.

Investigative reporter

Education: University of Florida, BS, Journalism, 1992

Debbie Cenziper joined The Washington Post’s investigative staff in 2007 after spending nearly 15 years at the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer. She received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for her year-long investigation of housing corruption in Miami, which led to the convictions of several developers and to a federal takeover of the Miami-Dade County housing agency. In 2006, Debbie was named a Pulitzer finalist in explanatory reporting for her series exposing breakdowns in the nation’s hurricane warning system. At The Post, she has reported on local nonprofit groups that
Latest from Debbie Cenziper

Lawmakers push to uncover riches shielded by state secrecy laws

Amid the hunt for Russian assets, reformers say financial transparency in the United States is long overdue.

April 21, 2022

The gatekeepers who open America to shell companies and secret owners

Few gatekeepers to the U.S. financial system operate with as little oversight as the registered agents who serve as the only publicly known contact in states that allow company owners to remain anonymous.

April 5, 2022

The ‘Cowboy Cocktail’: How Wyoming became one of the world’s top tax havens

The Pandora Papers show how global elite abandoned international financial centers for the secrecy afforded by Wyoming trusts, turning the state into one of the world’s top tax havens.

December 20, 2021

House Democrats denounce South Dakota, other U.S. states as hubs for financial secrecy

Lawmakers at the House subcommittee hearing called for more transparency and enforcement by regulators and others, saying the United States must not invite ill-gotten wealth once harbored in notorious global financial hubs.

December 8, 2021

Biden calls for sweeping new push to expose and punish financial corruption

The administration said it would work with Congress to bring more scrutiny to trust companies, lawyers and other financial gatekeepers, seek to identify owners “hiding behind opaque” corporations and target those involved in real estate transactions used to hide or launder money.

December 7, 2021

ICE’s deportation ‘force-multiplier’: Local sheriffs

Today on Post Reports, a deep examination of the sheriffs involved in the controversial 287(g) program. Plus, how the new republic of Barbados signals a changing tide for the British crown.

December 1, 2021

‘This has been a bipartisan failure’: Lawmakers call for investigation of Dominican Republic sugar industry

In a joint statement, 15 members of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade said recent media reports have raised concerns about continued abuses in the industry eight years after a U.S. Labor Department investigation found evidence of low wages, child labor and substandard housing and medical care.

November 13, 2021

    Bitter sugar

    How money has flowed from the sugar fields of the Dominican Republic to the burgeoning tax haven of South Dakota

    October 9, 2021

    Lawmakers call for crackdown on financial ‘enablers’ after Pandora Papers revelations

    Lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that would require trust companies and others to investigate foreign clients who want to move money and assets into the American financial system. The bill’s sponsors cited the findings of the Pandora Papers, a sweeping international collaboration that exposed how the global elite conceal their wealth in tax havens that increasingly include the United States.

    October 6, 2021