Bribe, Inc., the acclaimed Emmy-nominated documentary that exposes one of the largest corporate bribery schemes in modern history, has been officially selected to screen at the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival. The film will screen virtually on July 26 at 9 pm EDT, as part of the festival’s 2026 program, which runs from July 24 through August 2 with live events on Capitol Hill from July 27–30.
“This documentary would never have happened had it not been for the whistleblower at the center of our film,” said Peter Klein, the director of Bribe, Inc. “We’re deeply honored to be able to participate in this important summit and film festival, and hope our whistleblower’s bravery – and impact – will inspire others to come forward in the future.”
Whistleblowers take on enormous personal risk – professional retaliation, reputational attacks, and sometimes threats to their safety – when they choose to expose wrongdoing inside the institutions they serve. Their courage is often the only reason that violations of law, corporate malfeasance, and abuses of power ever come to light, opening the door to the investigations that hold powerful people and companies accountable.
Bribe, Inc. tells one of the starkest examples of that courage in action. The film follows Australian investigative journalist Nick McKenzie and anti-corruption activist Alexandra Addison as they chase down a bribery scheme by Unaoil, a Monaco-based oil consulting firm run by the Ahsani family. For more than a decade, Unaoil operated widescale bribery operations, funneling multimillion-dollar payments to government officials across North Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East on behalf of some of the world’s biggest oil and engineering firms to secure lucrative contracts.
McKenzie’s investigation started with a mysterious letter that arrived from a person claiming to have insider information about widespread corruption in the oil industry. The whistleblower asked the reporter to put a coded ad in the French newspaper Le Figaro. What followed was a clandestine meeting in France and months of negotiation to gain access to a trove of internal documents, followed by intense collaborative teamwork to reconstruct the hidden corruption deals involving many of the oil industry’s biggest players.
After McKenzie’s initial story came out, the targets of the corruption investigation launched a disinformation and threats campaign, claiming Figaro had tried to extort them. “It’s laughable when people say that,” says McKenzie in the film. “What sort of idiot conducts an extortion and the next day goes to the media and says, ‘investigate’?”
Figaro was subsequently interviewed by anti-corruption authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, and major corruption investigations were launched by both the US Department of Justice and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.
“Participating in this investigation has been a transformative experience for me,” said Figaro. “And having this story featured in this premiere event dedicated to whistleblowers is truly an honor. I hope this story inspires others to come forward and expose corruption around the world.”
To protect the whistleblower’s identity, the filmmakers blurred his image and had his interview re-voiced by noted Canadian actor William B. Davis, who famously played the mysterious “Smoking Man” in the TV show The X-Files. Figaro own account of the events is told in the new memoir entitled “I Will Call You Figaro: Anatomy of Corruption.”
Variety called the film’s revelations “explosive.” Daily Mail said the documentary is the “greatest exposé of bribery and corruption in modern history.” The Guardian described it as “filled with the kind of cloak-and-dagger developments one associates with potboilers and airport novels – clandestine meetings, coded emails and secret-filled hard drives.” More information is available at bribeinc.com.
Now in its 14th year, the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival was founded to honor the brave people who make the exposure of fraud, corruption, and misconduct possible. Co-hosted by ACORN 8, African American Women in Cinema, and the Justice Integrity Project, the festival brings together whistleblowers, journalists, advocates, and filmmakers for a hybrid program of panel discussions and film screenings, both online and in Washington, D.C.
Screening details:
- Film: Bribe, Inc.
- Festival: Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival
- Format: Virtual screening
- Date & Time: July 26, 9–11 PM EDT
- Festival Dates: July 24 – August 2, 2026
- Tickets/Info: https://www.whistleblowersummit.com/tickets
Media Contact: To interview the director or others involved in the film, contact us and we will be in touch. For other screening opportunities, visit Jolt.Film.