Venezuela's economy is in ruins, but there are still fortunes to be made. One of these — estimated to be worth $100 million — is that of a man named Carlos Luis Aguilera Borjas. And he's not just a businessman. For years Aguilera served the country's revolutionary leader, Hugo Chavez, as a bodyguard, later rising to lead its security agency. How did he make his money after leaving the socialist government?
Venezuela's economy is in ruins, but there are still fortunes to be made. One of these — estimated to be worth $100 million — is that of a man named Carlos Luis Aguilera Borjas. And he's not just a businessman. For years Aguilera served the country's revolutionary leader, Hugo Chavez, as a bodyguard, later rising to lead its security agency. How did he make his money after leaving the socialist government?
Russia’s former minister of industry acquired stakes in golf courses worth many millions. The properties were once owned by people associated with a major pipe manufacturer that would have fallen under his purview as minister.
Viktor Khristenko, formerly Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade. (Photo: Kremlin.ru)
Read more: Former Russian Minister Acquired Golf Courses Worth Millions
A €230 billion money laundering scandal put Danske Bank ahead of a record 22 other contenders to win the 2019 Corrupt Actor of the Year award from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
Read more: Bank That Enabled Money Laundering Wins OCCRP’s Top Crime Prize
Yevgeny Prigozhin ran the infamous St. Petersburg “troll farm” and other pro-Putin media operations. One of his operatives came clean to reporters, sharing some of the dirty work he and his team did for the oligarch — including murder. Then he vanished.
Yevgeny Prigozhin (Mikhail Metzel/TASS via Getty Images)
Read more: Operative for “Putin’s Chef” Shares Secrets, Vanishes — Then Reappears and Retracts
Lithuania’s Vladimir Romanov absconded to Russia more than four years ago, leaving investigators grasping to recoup millions they believe he stole from Ukio Bankas. They’re still chasing the money today.
The London property at the heart of a dispute involving Lithuania’s Vladimir Romanov. (Credit: Edin Pasovic/OCCRP)
Read more: The Wayward Millions of Lithuania’s Runaway Banker
An $8 million villa on Dubai’s luxurious Palm Jumeirah has been controlled for years by the family of Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s former first deputy prime minister. Its ownership structure shows how the wealthy use offshores to obscure their assets.
Unexplained financing, a rival bidder controlled by a cousin, and unpaid penalties. These are just some of the problems surrounding a bioethanol project promised by a senior Fidesz member.
Erik Bánki. (Photo: Tamás Botos, 444.hu)
Read more: Failed Bioethanol Project in Romania Leaves Unanswered Questions for Hungarian Legislator
When Hungarians picked up their ballots to vote in April’s national elections, more than half of their 23 choices were parties they’d never heard of.
Votes are counted in Hungarian parliamentary election, at the polling station in Budapest, Hungary, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Read more: Fake Parties, Real Money: Hungary’s Bogus Party Problem
A two-year investigation culminated this week with 90 arrests, splitting wide open a mafia coalition that trafficked drugs to Europe from across the world. Here’s how the clans ran it.
Masked police stand in an ice parlor in Duisburg, western Germany, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 as authorities conduct coordinated raids in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands in a crackdown on the Italian mafia. (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)
Read more: Inside the Mafia-Run Cocaine Network Shattered by European Police
Once responsible just for his physical security, President Putin’s bodyguards now have impressive titles — and land worth many millions in Russia’s most expensive region. The workers and pensioners who previously held the property say they were swindled out of it.
Illustration: Natalya Yamshchikova
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