Bloomberg News and the Seattle Times received George Polk Awards in business journalism categories on Wednesday.
The award for financial reporting goes to Noah Buhayer, Caleb Melby and David Kocieniewski of Bloomberg News for groundbreaking stories on how wealthy, well-connected individuals perverted the stated intention of “opportunity zone” incentives in the 2017 federal tax code for their own profit.
The program was aimed at spurring economic growth in depressed areas, but some developers reaped tax breaks by using it for such high-end projects as a long-planned $4 billion luxury North Miami development and the construction of a Ritz-Carlton hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon.
Dominic Gates, Mike Baker, Steve Militech and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Timesare honored in the business reporting category for first exposing the cooperative arrangements between Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration that led to approval of design changes in 737 Max jets blamed for two crashes, killing 346.
Times reporters traced FAA approval of the flawed flight control system to its decision to defer to Boeing’s own safety analysis, which they attributed to pressure from leaders of the company and the agency to speed production and avoid adding costs.
Winners of the 2019 awards will be honored at a luncheon ceremony at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan on Friday, April 3.
See all of the winners here.
