the sweet spot on is it, the communities with the guns are facing a tool meant to make the oil industry cleaner, provided criminals with the unique opportunity for building euro fraud assessments, all of our assessments. now, most of the, the use investigative unit teamed up with germany's public broadcasters adf, to investigate this fraud, which began with complex carbon credit, certified in germany, and took us all the way to oil fields in china. the this is shane lee, oil filled in eastern china documents we've acquired, showed that the owner supposedly installed new energy efficient equipment that reduces the oil fields carbon emissions by more than $250000.00 tons per year. this modernization was approved as an environmental protection project in germany in may

or is adf colleague and badging travel to the shang lee oil field to find the new equipment. no one didn't go to the new meal which i don't to where your communion, whatever to me mr. saw has been working in this oil field for many years and he frequently travels to nearby oil wells the whole why maybe uh, giovanni. yeah, that's. i'm only if i don't want them again. well, not, not me. oh, we drove to the company that supposedly installed the new equipment, the coordinates at the headquarters. we're also listed in the documents and we found, well, almost nothing just in

a band and chicken cuz this tied in with tips we had gotten from insiders within the carbon trade market in china. that many of the chinese projects that were sold to german companies or nothing but a lucrative fraud. setting up a real project cost tens of millions, west faking and project, just purely on paper like out of thin air. you only need to forward your basket of new documents and you gain hundreds of millions of bureaus and return carbon credits worldwide or under scrutiny. for months we dug into carbon seating projects. in china. we trawled through satellite images corroborated coordinates and sifted through thousands of pages of project documents which were submitted to the german authorities for approval under a relatively new scheme. since

2020 oil companies operating in germany can invest in projects that reduce carbon emissions and oil or gas fields. in other countries like china in return, they obtain carbon credits, which they can be used to meet their obligations to reduce emissions in germany. the federal environment agency is in charge of improving the projects for germany. the most important condition to be approved. the facilities need to be new at the county datas quick, this is just want to unlock the district stand. the loop is noise into what comes into the buttons by success to end additional ocean about 0, not my expose to then see any more annoying, quino shoots of energy. and overall the agency is approved. 66 projects in china organize under random letter combinations. their total market value exceeds 2000000000 years. many of the projects ernst and young, china's remote weaker region,

with often limited access to agencies. president direct messner told us that none of its employees ever visited any of the projects in china. it's standard procedure to lead the auditing to private, specialized companies by calling one to nobody's images and few play from the shifting the couldn't guns, the technician, and gum, and the type of equipment you condone is you upgrade from opposite to different adapting india tireless, decent and this is the loophole that apparently was exploited weeks after our visit to the chicken coop, the auditor sent the real coordinates of the company's address, claiming it was a mix up. but wrong coordinates were not the own irregularities we came across. we found addresses and dates that don't check out the take file number b,

z i a this is a recent photo. a source gave us the station is supposed to save more than a $120000.00 tons of carbon emissions per year. it collects gas that would otherwise be released during the oil extraction. the gas has been liquefied and load it onto trucks for further use. the application list, the projects start date as september 2020 but satellite images, route 2019 shows that the plant was already there. the 4 n g tanks were clearly visible. truck tracks at the pick up point and the security flare suggests that the plant was already operational more than one year before the application was filed. so an existing installation in china was likely submitted as a new climate project to the german authorities that we

went through zurich to meet one of the world's leading experts on international climate policies in carbon trait we showed act. so michelle low, the photos and documents to understand were there any circumstances under which such a project could have been eligible to be approved as an environmental project in germany? he's on log at off kind finding the image trend of s dolphins signed us on, on logics. yet before don tucker state had a different project. the same pattern. a plant in syndrome was allegedly built in 2020, and had in fact, been there since 2014. as the information board at the entrance shows over the following months, we identified 16 such allegedly fraudulent project in china. almost all seem to have been submitted by different chinese companies are germany's

carbon schemes and their potential loopholes common knowledge across china. could so many different companies be using the same trick. our colleagues from d d. s paging bureau went to visit some of the companies mentioned in the documents at the 1st address, we were supposed to find a power distribution company which supposedly submitted to projects our search, let us to the 5th floor what the georgia take again. so i need to know how much you live in going see power, the drama sigma a single month, single month, mail mail, and the next company sends me to number 3. yeah, and we don't,

i don't use the of the projects that are not eligible companies that seemingly don't exist, things get more and more mysterious. then the plot thickens. the german environment agency received a letter from a chinese company. we have a copy. it claims that another company called beijing carbon new energy technology, had filed 5 projects in its name. without its knowledge, let alone consent. more over it states, beijing carbon had erroneous lee altar data. there was a high probability that the documents were forged. the company asked german authorities to investigate the finish of addressing game change. understand? does it as estimate the unvil funded entities steve, children that minutes in the home with us about it? yes, the guns do i have to share in vice from ish,

best of us come pitch effect. so it took this tip off from china to the german authorities to launch a full scale investigation. they referred the case to the prosecution. who as of now, is only looking into the german side, not the chinese company behind the whole scheme. chinese company records helped us investigate beach in carbon. it was founded in 2011 by a former official and the energy sector. together with her son and several others, they set up an opaque network of companies and some companies we find references to beijing carbon their employees or addresses and the documents of at least 28 projects. our colleagues tried to visit the company envisioning hall. the woman 2 names and phone ser cobb and that goes with either one of the home forming should

the young shrew, the manager she was told was unavailable. then they hung up as we tried to find out more about the aging carbon, the companies seem to get nervous information we obtained suggest the company aspects, chinese business partners not to talk to the press. empty china media are using shady methods to smear all chinese projects. was allegedly citing these conversations, take project e q b t, another one of phasing carbons projects according to the documents. the site was inspected by 2 audit and companies altogether. 7 times. in their reports, the companies confirmed that the installation consisted of 6 big storage tanks. for liquefied gas through 12 generators, the satellite images and photos they

obtained only ever show for tanks and for generators. how could the auditors possibly missed? that? is how does one go sized us? i believe i follow a lot of either either tons of companies here by saying the such the cause, i mean, told me off con, 5 bits also i know fremont def was because they shop got to spend to get the auditors in this case for 2 companies with an excellent reputation in the industry, whether be the answer is specialized and environmental certification. and the 2nd company, very co, s. c. e. located in this picturesque village and southern germany has an equally good reputation. the executive chairman is known as one of the leading experts on carbon certification. $48.00 of the $66.00 chinese projects were audited by at least one of the 2 companies to stop. i can click on each side. does this plus stuck? if it's one point i can define as a employee, act and trick long,

it must be out and for these have improved film and tactics, and that's how it has a fault. all fine was been tied. it pushed in thailand, is tusham says, teams gardens. i enjoy done this to centers in japan, go the miller bbm search and is eric o. s c. e refused several requests for an on camera interview that replied in writing. we see no reason to doubt our auditing work, nor the work of our auditors. we are convinced that no criminal offense has been committed by the employees of our company. the prosecutor's office in berlin recently searched the premises of both those companies along with a 3rd one which audited a few other allegedly fraudulent projects that misleading manufacturers new pads. missing the tool. this being a mom to keep it has to zip secret fluid except yeah, this i'm going to cuz i have to of what i mean by tough on the type clicks on teams

and politicians have also reacted members of parliament twice. some of the president of the environmental agency for questioning the agency has now placed $45.00 projects under suspicion. they are worth 1000000000 euros according to estimates. the projects could have saved the amount of carbon a mega city like legal admits in one year. the agency says it is working to resend as many of the credits as possible, and the program is now closed to new applications. the full damage has yet to emerge. one thing, however, is already abundantly clear. it didn't take a lot to defraud a system that was supposed to make a dirty industry, a little cleaner with the right paperwork and the right people in the right places in germany. one chinese.