Richard Behar

Richard Behar Profile

In a career that has encompassed working for Forbes, TIME and FORTUNE magazines stretching over three decades, Richard Behar has been honored with more than twenty major journalism awards. On television he has presented reports for BBC, CNN, PBS and FoxNews.com. When Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov was murdered in Moscow in 2005 Behar instigated “Project Klebnikov” to investigate, building on the groundbreaking investigative work he had already undertaken in Russia. Some of the world’s leading investigative reporters have joined him in this project, along with some of the most famous media institutions such as Bloomberg, Forbes, The Economist and Vanity Fair.

Travelling through more than 40 countries across the globe to flush out and investigate corruption and wrong doing, Behar has written on subjects as diverse as those who finance terrorism in Karachi to counterfeiting in Beijing, corruption on Wall Street to Russian Mafia activities in Siberia. His cover story for TIME magazine on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was widely praised, and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau acclaimed his exposé of organized crime involvement in New York City’s garbage business. His revelation of corruption inside the IRS led to a congressional hearing and he exposed one of the planners of the 911 attacks in his reporting from Pakistan, The Karachi Connection.

A graduate of New York University (where he today serves on the advisory committee of the Business Journalism Masters’ program), Behar was named among the hundred top business journalists of the 20th century by The Journalist and Financial Reporter. He has also been named as Business Journalist of the Year. His TIME cover story on the Church of Scientology won the Conscience-in-Media Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, an honor which is not frequently awarded. He also received the National Headliner Award as part of CNN’s Investigation Team into the attacks on America and their aftermath. He is the only journalist known to have read the Phoenix Memo, the infamous FBI document warning that Osama bin Laden supporters were training in US flight schools.

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  Business reporter Richard Behar has garnered nearly two dozen major journalism awards over a career spanning three decades.  He was called “one of the most dogged of our watchdogs” by the late Jack Anderson—a founding father of modern investigative reporting.  From 1982-2004, Behar worked on the staffs of Forbes, TIME and FORTUNE magazines.  He has also done assignments for BBC, CNN, PBS and FoxNews.com. In 2005, Behar launched “Project Klebnikov,” a global media alliance committed to shedding light on the Moscow murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov—and to furthering the groundbreaking investigative work that Paul began in Russia. (Key members of “Project K” include Bloomberg, Forbes, The Economist, Vanity Fair, and a team of the world’s leading investigative reporters.)

  Behar’s travels have taken him to more than 40 countries—including through the sub-Sahara, where he penned a 24-page report for Fast Company magazine entitled China Storms Africa. As part of the project, Behar was the first American journalist in nearly three years to visit Equatorial Guinea, one of the world’s most corrupt and censored countries. (The article won George Polk and Overseas Press Club awards in 2009.)

  Behar is currently writing a book about Bernie Madoff for Random House, the world’s largest book publisher.

  Major awards include the Gerald Loeb, Polk (twice), National Magazine, Overseas Press Club (twice) Daniel Pearl, Deadline Club (NYC chapter: Society of Professional Journalists) and Worth Bingham Prize, among other honors—on subjects ranging from terror financing in Karachi to counterfeiting in Beijing; from corporate wrongdoing on Wall Street to the Russian mob in Siberia.  Behar wrote an acclaimed cover story in TIME magazine on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and was praised by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau for his award-winning articles exposing organized crime in New York City’s garbage trade. Behar’s work in the 1980s exposing corruption inside the IRS sparked a Congressional hearing that led to reforms, and his The Karachi Connection, reported from Pakistan, exposed a logistics leader of the 9-11 attacks.

  Behar was included among the 100 top business journalists of the 20^th century by The Journalist and Financial Reporter, and was named Business Journalist of the Year in London in 2001. He also 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 the Church of Scientology.  In 2002, as part of CNN’s Investigation Team, Behar received the National Headliner Award for “outstanding continuing coverage of attacks on America and their aftermath.”  He remains the only known journalist to have read the infamous Phoenix Memo, the pre 9-11 FBI document that warned that Osama bin Laden supporters were enrolled in flight training schools across the U.S.

  Behar was born in Manhattan, raised on Long Island, and is a graduate of New York University. He today serves on the advisory committee of NYU’s business journalism Masters’ program.