Open Secrets registered as an independent non-profit organisation in February 2017. Open Secrets was originally established through a fellowship awarded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa in 2012, and operated as a project of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation from January 2014. Its main focus in this period was research and advocacy on economic crime during apartheid, which culminated in the publication of Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit in May 2017. While we have since broadened our focus – we continue to fearlessly focus our work on the powerful and the economic crimes from which they profit.