Gold and Chaos in Orinoco

A joint investigation by Efecto Cocuyo and OCCRP ​explores the Orinoco Mining Arc — the Venezuelan government's controversial attempt to find new sources of wealth — and the devastating effects of the mining on the people who live there.

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Statement from OCCRP on Government Attacks on KRIK.rs

It has come to our attention that members of the current government have launched a smearing campaign against one of the members of our network.

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Revealed: The Pentagon Is Spending Up To $2.2 Billion on Soviet-Style Arms for Syrian Rebels

The Pentagon is on the hunt for Soviet-style arms across Eastern Europe -- and it’s using questionable contractors and misleading documents to get the weapons to their final destination: Syria.

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The Azerbaijani Laundromat

The Azerbaijani Laundromat is a complex money-laundering operation and slush fund that handled $2.9 billion over a two-year period through four shell companies registered in the UK.

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Favoritism Shears Competitors in Georgian Sheep Industry

Beka Gonashvili's love for Georgian folk music led him into the sheep export business nearly a decade ago. But he’s singing a sad song now, claiming that government-connected companies have driven him out of what had been a lucrative market.

Herds of sheep in Georgia's mountainous Tusheti region. (Photo: Studio Monitor)

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Firm Linked to Putin Friend Smoothed Path for BP in Russia

If you want to do business in Moscow, it helps to hire a pal of President Vladimir Putin.

That’s the conclusion reached by investigators for Transparency International-Russia, who looked into one of the biggest deals in that country’s history: BP’s 2013 sale of its stake in Russia’s third-largest oil company to state-owned oil giant Rosneft for a hefty amount of Rosneft shares and $12.5 billion in cash.

A BP station in Moscow. (Photo: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov)

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Cars, Connections, and Contracts in Putin’s Russia

The owners of the Avilon Automotive Group, a top Russian dealer in luxury vehicles that does substantial business with law enforcement agencies, have secret business connections with relatives of Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, his deputy, and a senior ex-official of the Investigative Committee, a top-level police agency.

The Avilon complex and the Avilon-Plaza building in Moscow (left), which contains a former office of Probusinessbank. (Photo: Pavel L Photo and Video / Shutterstock.com)

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Budget Is Big Loser in Georgian State Lottery

Six years ago, the young brother-in-law of Davit Kezerashvili, Georgia’s former (and now fugitive) Minister of Defense, gave his nation an unusual gift.

Sporadic lottery player David Pantsulaia, 65, buys a Georgian lottery ticket at a kiosk on Chavchavadze Avenue in Tbilisi. He says he dreams of winning the jackpot. (Photo: Tatuli Omiadze, iFact.ge)

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How the Camorra Went Global

“We’ve come here to kill you tonight. Perhaps you don’t get it? At the same time, we’ll also kill your son and your wife".

These chilling words, spoken by a man associated with Italy’s brutal Camorra mafia, were recorded in a car by a hidden police microphone. Antonio Righi -- known as Tonino the Blond -- was threatening a broker to whom he had given more than €200,000 on behalf of the mob.

(Photo: Cecilia Anesi)

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Serbian President’s Party Tied to Football Hooligans

The official photos of the May 31 inauguration of Aleksandar Vucic present an idyllic scene  --  for good reason.

Even as Serbia’s new president pledged to do his utmost to preserve “human and minorities’ rights and freedoms,” men outside the building were forcefully removing inconvenient protesters and journalists.

Young men assault anti-Vucic protesters during the new Serbian president's inauguration ceremony on May 31. (Photo: E-stock.us/Aleksandar Bačlija)

Read more: Serbian President’s Party Tied to Football Hooligans