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Richard Behar is an award-winning American investigative journalist who has written on the staffs of leading magazines including Forbes, Time and Fortune over a 22-year period from 1982-2004. His work has also appeared on CNN and PBS. As of July 2005, Behar coordinates Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance launched to investigate the Moscow murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov and related lines of inquiry. Since 2004, his freelance investigative reports have also appeared in BBC News, Forbes, FoxNews.com and Fast Company magazine. In December 2008 he was commissioned by Random House to write a book about Bernard Madoff. Contents 1 Education and career 2 Recognition 2.1 Awards 3 Notes 4 External links Education and career Behar was born in Manhattan, raised on Long Island, and is a 1982 graduate of New York University. Before joining Time in 1989, he was a reporter and associate editor for Forbes magazine for six years. He has also worked at the New York Times as a researcher and writer. Behar reported extensively about organized crime and the business backgrounds of politicians for Time, for whom Behar wrote a widely acclaimed 1993 cover story on the World Trade Center bombing.

In 1991, he wrote "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", a Time cover story on Scientology.1 The acclaimed article won several awards.2 The Church of Scientology brought several lawsuits over the article, all of which were eventually dismissed.2 While investigating the story, he experienced some of Scientology's Fair Game tactics: I later learned, a copy of my personal credit report -- with detailed information about my bank accounts, home mortgage, credit-card payments, home address and Social Security number -- had been illegally retrieved from a national credit bureau called Trans Union. The sham company that received it, "Educational Funding Services" of Los Angeles, gave as its address a mail drop a few blocks from Scientology's headquarters. The owner of the mail drop is a private eye named Fred Wolfson, who admits that an Ingram associate retained him to retrieve credit reports on several individuals. Wolfson says he was told that Scientology's attorneys "had judgments against these people and were trying to collect on them." He says now, "These are vicious people. These are vipers." Ingram, through a lawyer, denies any involvement in the scam. ... After that, however, an attorney subpoenaed me, while another falsely suggested that I might own shares in a company I was reporting about that had been taken over by Scientologists (he also threatened to contact the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). A close friend in Los Angeles received a disturbing telephone call from a Scientology staff member seeking data about me -- an indication that the cult may have illegally obtained my personal phone records. Two detectives contacted me, posing as a friend and a relative of a so-called cult victim, to elicit negative statements from me about Scientology. Some of my conversations with them were taped, transcribed and presented by the church in affidavits to TIME's lawyers as "proof" of my bias against Scientology.1

A 2003 report by Behar in Fortune explored Donald Rumsfeld's role in helping North Korea build its potential Nuclear weapon capacity, in an article entitled "Rummy’s North Korea Connection: What Did Donald Rumsfeld Know About ABB’s Deal to Build Nuclear Reactors There? And Why Won’t He Talk About It?" Behar is the only known journalist to have read the classified Phoenix Memo, the infamous pre-9/11 FBI document which warned the FBI about Osama bin Laden supporters enrolling in flight-training schools across the country.3 In October 2004, Behar left Time, Inc. to pursue book writing and various independent projects, including the launch of Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance investigating the July, 2004, murder of Paul Klebnikov, who was then the editor-in-chief of Forbes Russia. Behar also serves on the advisory committee of New York University's business journalism Master's program (BER). In December 2008 he was commissioned by Random House to write a book about Bernard Madoff.4 Recognition Behar was included among the 100 best business journalists (the "100 luminaries") of the 20th century by the TJFR business journalism trade group.

In 1999, investigative columnist Jack Anderson, a pioneer of modern investigative reporting, called Behar "one of the most dogged of our watchdogs."5 Awards Behar has won more than 20 awards for his reporting, including: Four awards in recognition of his 1991 story for Time about Scientology: Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism (1992)2 Conscience-in-Media Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (1992) "for singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost"26 Worth Bingham Prize (1992)2 Leo J. Ryan Award78 George Polk Award (twice): One for his 1995 story about the strong-arm tactics used by the Allstate Insurance Co. against its own employees; a second Polk for a 2008 story about China's activities in sub-Saharan Africa 9 Business Journalist of the Year Award from the City of London Corporation for exposes about counterfeiting in China and organized crime in Russia's aluminum industry 10 Daniel Pearl Award for post-9/11 journalism 11 2002 Morton Frnak Award, Overseas Press Club for post-9/11 journalism in Pakistan1213 2008 Ed Cunningham Award, Overseas Press Club for China's activities in sub-Saharan Africa 14 Jack Anderson Award (twice) for "Top Investigative Reporter of the Year" -- 1997 and 1999 National Headliner Award, as a member of the CNN Investigation Team, for "outstanding continuing coverage of attacks on America and their aftermath." SAPA award (Society of Publishers in Asia) for best feature writing for an in-depth account of the royal family of Brunei "Best of the Best" award in 2009 from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), for an expose on China's business activities in sub-Saharan Africa. Fortune was awarded the National Magazine Award for public interest for two articles written by Behar on organized crime's influence in the garbage-hauling industry (1997) 15 2008 George Polk Award for articles in Fast Company Notes ^ a b Richard Behar, "Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes: Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam -- and aiming for the mainstream", book rev. of "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power, Time Magazine, May 6, 1991: 50, rpt. in cs.cmu.edu, accessed May 11, 2007. [Part of "Special Report (cover story)".] ^ a b c d e "Judge dismisses Church of Scientology's $416 million lawsuit against TIME Magazine". Time Magazine press release via Business Wire. July 16, 1996. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1996_July_16/ai_18489022. Retrieved 2006-06-01.  ^ Behar, Richard (2002-05-22). "FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked". Fortune.  ^ Neyfakh, Leon. "Richard Abate on Building a Better Madoff Book". The New York Observer (www.observer.com). http://www.observer.com/2008/media/abate-his-client-richard-behar-most-badass-investigative-reporter-america-will-write-best. Retrieved 2010-03-30.  ^ [1] ^ Awards history at American Society of Journalists and Authors. ^ Behar, Richard (1992). "Richard Behar, acceptance speech, 1992 Leo J. Ryan award". (OLD) Cult Awareness Network conference, Los Angeles. http://www.lermanet.com/scientologyscandals/behar.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-25.  ^ Henderson, Bob (1992-12-28). "Hubbard from Pinellas to Russia". St. Petersburg Times: p. 1.  ^ http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/polk/prev/prev90.html ^ http://www.bjoya.org/winners.vc?year=2001 ^ http://www.danielpearl.com/news_and_press/press_releases/saja_awards.html ^ http://opcofamerica.org/awards/morton-frank-award-2002 ^ http://opcofamerica.org/awards/2003-opc-award-winners ^ http://opcofamerica.org/awards/2008-opc-award-winners ^ http://www.magazine.org/Editorial/National_Magazine_Awards/Searchable_Database/ External links Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Richard Behar Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Richard Behar RichardBehar.com - Richard Behar's official home page ProjectKlebnikov.org - 'The global media alliance investigating the July 9th, 2004 murder of Paul Klebnikov, the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine' LermaNet.com - 'Leo Award Winner Richard Behar at CAN Conference 1992' NewsBios.com - 'Richard Behar' Acceptance Speech, for Leo J. Ryan award "Fuzzy, But Fervent", in "The Winds of Werner", by Richard Behar and Ralph King, Jr., originally published in Forbes, November 18, 1985: 44; rpt. in rickross.com, accessed August 27, 2006. (An article about The Hunger Project and Werner Erhard.) Persondata Name Behar, Richard Alternative names Short description Date of birth Place of birth Manhattan Date of death Place of death