The Secret Players Behind Macedonia's Fake News Sites

The fake news sites that flourished in Macedonia in 2016 weren’t just the work of local teenagers — they involved ultra-partisan American writers, including a GOP candidate for Nevada's State Assembly. Security agencies are also probing possible connections to Russia.

A man reads a magazine near a newsstand in Skopje, Macedonia, 2017.

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Russian Businessman Behind Unrest in Macedonia

A Russian billionaire living in Greece has given hundreds of thousands of euros to Macedonian opponents of the country’s proposed name change. The recipients include football hooligans who have rioted in the capital.

Russian-Greek businessman Ivan Savvidi. (Credit: Alchetron)

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Georgian Prosecutors Investigating Spanish Basketball Deal

The Georgian Basketball Federation signed an expensive deal to develop its young players in Spain. Nearly four years later, it has almost nothing to show for it — and prosecutors are on the case.

Nika Darbaidze (#11) participated in a player development deal with Spain’s Saski Baskonia team, but decided to join the Georgian national team instead of returning to Spain for a second season. (Photo: iFact.ge)

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Bad Romanian Horse Meat Stampedes Across Europe

Over and over again, Romanian horse meat laced with cadmium made its way into European markets. A new investigation finds that the companies involved used counterfeit documents — issued by Romanian veterinarians overseen by food safety officials.

Credit: Edin Pasovic, OCCRP

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President Poroshenko’s Lawyers Go on the Defensive

The original Panama Papers investigation revealed how Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, used offshore companies to maintain control of his candy empire — in contradiction of his official statements. A new leak of files shows how his lawyers scrambled to protect him behind the scenes as the publication date approached.

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Secret Deals Undermined Tech Firm Working for Russian Military

Thermal imaging devices, such as night-vision goggles, are the eyes of a modern army. With their help, military operations can be undertaken even at night or in poor visibility.

Credit: Edin Pasovic / OCCRP

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Steppe to Soho: How Millions Linked to Kazakhstan Mega-Fraud Case Ended up in Trump Property

For years, journalists — and reportedly even federal investigators — have pored over U.S. President Donald Trump’s business deals for signs that criminals and their dirty money may have entered his orbit.

Donald Trump, Tevfik Arif, and Felix Sater attend the Trump SoHo launch party in September 2007 in New York. Credit: Mark von Holden / WireImage

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Panama Papers: The Aftermath

Two years after the original Panama Papers leaks, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung has received a fresh trove of leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca, the now-defunct Panamanian law firm.

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A Welcoming Caribbean Shore for High-Level Romanian Fugitives

They were once two of the most powerful women in Romania — a top government minister and a chief prosecutor.

But when they found themselves fugitives, convicted on corruption charges and facing years in prison, they chose the same escape: Costa Rica.

A house in Costa Rica belonging to Mihai Radulescu, a Romanian businessman who helped many of his fellow Romanians find refuge there. (Photo: Semanario Universidad)

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How Serbia’s Health Minister Helped a Criminal Avoid Trial

Petar Panic, also known as “Pana,” is a one-eyed Serbian mobster with a rich criminal history and friends in the right places.

Panic once served as a bodyguard for Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, who was recently convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against humanity.

A new investigation by KRIK, a partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) shows the extent of Panic’s ties to Serbia’s powerful and controversial Minister of Health, Zlatibor Loncar.

Credit: Edin Pasovic, OCCRP

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