Richard Behar
Richard Behar has garnered more than 20 journalism awards over a three-decade career. He was called “one of the most dogged of our watchdogs" by the late Jack Anderson, a founding father of modern investigative reporting.
Since 2012, Behar has been the Contributing Editor of Investigations for Forbes magazine, where he recently wrote an exposé (based on internal emails he obtained) of Donald Trump’s business dealings with a Russia-
born, mob-connected felon. He is also writing a book about Bernard Madoff — to be published by Simon & Schuster; and is the founder of Mideast Dig, a global non-profit investigative news enterprise focused on the Middle East.
From 1982-2004, Behar was a staffer at Forbes, Time and Fortune. In 2005, he launched Project Klebnikov, a media alliance committed to shedding light on the Moscow murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov. (Members of “Project K” include Bloomberg, The Economist, Forbes and Vanity Fair.)
Awards include: Gerald Loeb, Polk (twice), National Magazine, Overseas Press Club (twice), and Daniel Pearl award — on subjects ranging from terror financing in Karachi to counterfeiting in Beijing; from Wall Street wrongdoing to the Russian mob in Siberia. He received the rarely bestowed Conscience-in-Media Award for "singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost" from the American Society of Journalists and Authors — for a Time cover story on Scientology.
Behar's work revealing IRS corruption sparked a Congressional hearing that led to reforms, and his "The Karachi Connection," reported from Pakistan, exposed a 9-11 terrorist leader. In 2002, as part of CNN's Investigation Team, Behar received an award for ''outstanding continuing coverage of attacks on America and their aftermath." He remains the only known journalist to have read the “Phoenix Memo,” the pre 9-11 FBI document that warned that Osama bin Laden supporters were enrolled in U.S. flight training schools.