Mumbai (May 5, 2026) – Bloomberg has won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary for “trAPPed,” an investigation in graphic novel form documenting a widespread digital scam in India that has devastated hundreds of thousands of lives. The saga of a neurologist kept under “digital arrest” for eight days was illustrated by Anand RK and reported by Suparna Sharma and Natalie Obiko Pearson. The award for “trAPPed” marks Bloomberg News’ third Pulitzer Prize and its first for a team based in Asia.
The Pulitzer Prize Board cited “a riveting account of a neurologist in India held under ‘digital arrest’ by her phone, reporting that uses visuals and words to cast light on the growing global challenges of surveillance and digital scams.”
“We are honored that the Pulitzer Board recognized this example of deeply reported public service journalism, published in an inventive format,” said Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. “Both the intensive reporting into this ruinous scam and the use of the graphic-novel-style medium to bring the story to life are extraordinary achievements by the team.”
Read the Pulitzer-winning work here, which is also available in Hindi and in a text version, with a description of every panel.
The Pulitzer Prizes, regarded as the highest honor in American journalism and the arts, were announced today. See the full list of 2026 winners here.
For “trAPPed,” Sharma and Pearson conducted extensive interviews, collected voluminous documentation and traveled thousands of miles across India, while taking video and photos. Each panel drawn by Anand RK shows painstakingly rendered representations of people and places from their reporting. The graphic feature is designed to meet readers on their phones, bringing them closer to the victim’s psychological ordeal as her phone’s camera became her captor. The format is intended to help readers understand why this scam was successful, letting them experience it alongside the main subject and using art to convey what it is like to be “arrested by phone.”
To complement the graphic story, Bloomberg Businessweek published “India’s Digital Dream, Hacked.” These stories won the Overseas Press Club’s 2026 Kim Wall Award.
Anand RK is an Eisner Award-winning illustrator and visual artist based in Mumbai. He illustrated the graphic novels “Blue in Green” and “Grafity’s Wall.” He also paints and has done artwork for DC Comics. Pearson is Bloomberg’s Senior Investigative Reporter for Asia, based in Tokyo. In 2024, Pearson was among the finalists on the staff of Bloomberg News for the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a series that revealed how the US government promoted exports of firearms that aided the spread of gun violence. Sharma is a freelance journalist in Delhi. As a veteran investigative correspondent, she has done extensive reporting on crime and the courts.
Nadja Popovich, Ken Armstrong, Amanda Cox, Jui Chakravorty and Flynn McRoberts served as editors on “trAPPed.”In addition, two Bloomberg News series were named as Pulitzer Prize finalists this year.
A finalist in Explanatory Reporting, the “Cancer Capitalism”series revealed how cancer drugs have become a lucrative business for hospitals and doctors, as well as pharma companies. Reporting on the Trump family’s crypto businesses is a finalist in National Reporting.
Bloomberg News won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2025 for Alexandra Lange’s collection of essays on public spaces for families written for CityLab, and for Explanatory Reporting in 2015 for Zachary R. Mider’s reporting on corporate tax avoidance.
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