Editorial Standards

I. What we publish

We publish in four lanes, each with a different editorial discipline.

Case Files. Standalone investigative autopsies on resolved frauds. The legal record is closed: convictions entered, judgments handed down, settlements approved, bankruptcy filings completed. Plain language is permitted because the public record carries the weight.

Breakdowns. Active in-market pitches placed alongside a resolved historical parallel. The reader draws the conclusion. The structured comparison is the editorial defense and the legal defense at the same time. We do not write that any active subject is a fraud.

Open Files. Active situations where the public record (regulator filings, court documents, primary disclosures) is rich enough to support reporting on its own. We report what the documents allege. We do not assert beyond them.

Feed and Tell. Daily short-form coverage. The Feed covers current events. The Tell names a single tactic and illustrates how it works. Discipline scales to the subject matter.

II. Sourcing and attribution

Every factual claim in a published piece is traceable to a primary document or an on-the-record source.

Primary documents include court filings, regulatory enforcement actions, financial disclosures, sworn testimony, and government press releases. Named on-the-record reporting from established outlets is acceptable secondary sourcing. Anonymous social media posts, unattributed forums, and paid news services are not.

Every published piece carries an Evidence Trail listing the documents and reporting that support it. The Evidence Trail is the reader's right to verify our work themselves. We treat it as a contract.

We do not publish stories built on a single source unless that source is a filed legal document.

III. Verification before publication

Before any story is published, three checks are completed.

Sourcing check. Every named figure, every dollar amount, every date, every quoted document is matched to a citation in the Evidence Trail. Claims without a trail do not make it to the page.

Legal check. The piece is reviewed against the editorial discipline that applies to its lane. Active matters are scrutinized for any language that could be read as an assertion of guilt or liability. Adjudicated matters are scrutinized for accuracy against the closed record.

Voice and clarity check. The piece is read for plain language, factual rhythm, and reader trust. If a passage cannot be understood by an attentive reader without a finance background, it is rewritten until it can.

IV. Naming

We name the people the public record names. Defendants in filed actions, executives identified in regulator complaints, public-company officers, named conspirators in criminal proceedings.

We do not name private victims in our reporting unless they have already chosen to identify themselves publicly, in which case we use their names as they have used them. Where a story turns on a specific victim's experience and that person has not gone public, we either reach out for permission to name them or we change identifying details and disclose the change at the top of the piece.

We do not name third parties (family members, employees, business associates) who are not the subject of the reporting and whose presence in the story does not require identification.

We do not name minors. We do not name suspects who have not been charged.

V. Active matters and the presumption of innocence

This is the standard that governs everything in our Open File and Breakdown lanes.

When a matter is active (under investigation, in litigation, or otherwise unadjudicated) we report what filed documents allege. We do not assert that any defendant has committed the conduct alleged. We do not assert civil liability. We do not declare any active subject to be a fraud, a Ponzi, a scam, or a criminal enterprise.

We use precise language: "the SEC alleges," "the complaint states," "court filings indicate," "according to the indictment." We do not collapse alleged conduct into asserted fact.

Defendants in active criminal matters are presumed innocent until a court holds otherwise. Civil defendants are presumed not liable until a court holds otherwise. Coverage of an active matter is reporting on the public record, not a verdict.

VI. Reconstruction

True crime reporting often depicts scenes the writer did not witness. We are honest about the seam between document and reconstruction.

Where the public record specifies a scene, we report it. Where the public record establishes a sequence of events but not the exact dialogue or interior detail, we may reconstruct that detail to convey the documented pattern. Reconstruction stays inside the boundaries of the documented record. We do not invent events. We do not put words in a real person's mouth that contradict what the record establishes.

The Editorial Notice at the bottom of every story discloses that some scenes are reconstructed. Where a piece relies more heavily than usual on reconstruction, the disclosure appears at the top.

Names of private individuals are sometimes changed to protect identity. Names of named defendants and named public figures are not changed.

VII. Source protection and anonymous tips

If you send us a tip, we protect your identity. We do not publish tipsters' names without explicit consent. We do not respond to inquiries from third parties asking about the source of a story we have published.

We use anonymous sourcing only when (a) the information cannot be obtained any other way, (b) the source has direct knowledge of what they are describing, (c) the publisher has verified the source's identity and standing, and (d) granting anonymity is necessary to protect the source from retaliation.

Anonymous sourcing is described in the piece itself ("a person familiar with the matter," "a former employee who requested anonymity citing concern for retaliation"). We do not publish anonymous tips as fact without independent verification through documents or named sources.

VIII. Use of artificial intelligence

MarkTell uses AI tools in the production workflow. We disclose this openly because the reader has a right to know how the work is made.

Where AI is used. Research synthesis from public documents, drafting of initial article structure, copy editing, formatting, and image generation. AI assists with the work. It does not perform the work.

Where AI is not used. Editorial judgment about what to publish. Legal review. Sourcing decisions. The decision to name or not name a person. The decision to report on an active matter. The voice of the publication. These remain human decisions reviewed by a human editor.

What we never do. We do not generate facts. We do not generate quotes attributed to real people. We do not generate citations to documents that do not exist. Every factual claim in a published piece is traceable to a real primary source, regardless of what tools were used to assemble the prose around it. If a claim cannot be sourced, it does not appear, and no AI tool changes that.

The use of AI in production does not reduce the publisher's responsibility for what is published. If something is wrong, it is our fault.

IX. Imagery

Most photographic imagery on MarkTell is AI-generated and stylized. The visual treatment is intentionally cinematic: high-contrast monochrome with a single point of warm color. Our images are illustrative. They are not documentary.

AI-generated imagery does not depict real persons, real events, or real locations. It does not portray real defendants, real victims, or real scenes from any case we cover. It is mood and metaphor, not reportage.

Where we publish a real photograph (a court filing exhibit, a regulator-published image, a documentary photograph from a public source), it is captioned as such, with the source attributed.

X. Independence and conflicts of interest

The publisher does not hold financial positions in any company, security, token, or investment vehicle covered in our reporting, and does not trade on the basis of unpublished editorial work. We do not accept payment, gifts, or favors from subjects of coverage or from parties with a stake in our coverage.

If a writer has any prior personal or professional relationship with a subject of coverage, that writer is not assigned the piece. If such a relationship surfaces during the work, the assignment is reassigned and the prior connection disclosed in editorial notes.

We do not provide advance copies of stories to subjects of coverage. We may seek comment from a subject before publication; that is a request for response, not a courtesy preview.

XI. Sponsored content and advertising

MarkTell may carry sponsored content and advertising. The line between editorial and commercial is absolute.

Sponsored content is clearly labeled. It is visually distinct from editorial. The publisher's editorial judgment is not for sale. Sponsors do not see editorial work in advance, do not influence what we cover, and cannot purchase coverage or non-coverage.

We do not accept sponsorships from companies whose products or operations we cover, are likely to cover, or that operate in adjacent risk categories. We do not accept sponsorships from regulated investment advisers, broker-dealers, fund managers, cryptocurrency platforms, multi-level marketing organizations, or any business whose model includes selling investment opportunities to retail.

XII. Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it.

Material factual errors trigger a correction notice dated and posted at the top of the affected story. The original incorrect text is preserved with strikethrough where useful for the reader's understanding of what changed. We do not silently edit history.

Errors that fundamentally alter the meaning of a piece trigger a retraction. Retracted pieces remain on the site with a clear retraction notice; the original text is preserved or replaced with a retraction explanation, depending on the severity of the error.

Corrections are submitted through corrections@marktell.com. We respond. Every correction is logged on the public Corrections page.

XIII. Right of reply

Subjects of our reporting may submit factual disputes through editor@marktell.com. Provide the story URL, the specific paragraph in dispute, and the document or evidence supporting the position.

Where a dispute is supported by the record, the story is updated and the change disclosed. Where a dispute is not supported by the record, we explain the basis for our reporting in the response. We do not remove accurate, well-sourced reporting because a subject prefers it not be public.

Threats, demand letters, and litigation correspondence go to legal@marktell.com, not to the editorial inbox. We respond to legal correspondence through counsel.

XIV. Plagiarism and originality

Every piece on MarkTell is original work produced for this publication. We do not republish copy from other outlets. We do not paraphrase published reporting closely enough to function as an unattributed copy.

Where another outlet's reporting forms part of the basis for a piece, we attribute it by name and link to it in the Evidence Trail. Where another outlet broke a story we are following, we say so.

Plagiarism is grounds for retraction and removal of the piece, public correction, and termination of the writer's relationship with the publication.

XV. The pen name and editorial responsibility

MarkTell publishes under the byline "Mark Tell," a pen name. The pen name protects the writer's privacy and editorial independence. It does not reduce accountability.

The publisher is the legal operator of the publication and the responsible party for everything published here. Editorial decisions, sourcing standards, corrections obligations, and liability for the work attach to the publisher, not to the pen name. The publisher's identity is registered with our hosting and payment providers, with our legal counsel, and with the relevant regulatory and tax authorities. It is not concealed from the institutions that have a right to know.

All bylines on MarkTell are pen names. Coverage is built and reviewed under those bylines but published under the editorial responsibility of the publisher. Reporting concerns about any specific piece, regardless of byline, go to editor@marktell.com.

XVI. Reader contact and accountability

Every editorial commitment on this page is enforceable by the reader.

If you believe we have fallen short of any standard above, write to editor@marktell.com. Reference the standard. Reference the story. We will respond.

This page is reviewed at least annually and updated as the publication's practice evolves. The revision date at the top of this page reflects the most recent update. Material changes are noted in the newsletter.