The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) condemns last week’s decision by Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs to pursue a baseless pre-trial investigation into our local member center, Slidstvo.Info. Issued in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from the independent media outlet submitted late last year, this decision threatens the right of a free press to access information and inform citizens around the world.

Photo: Harm Joris ten Napel.

For almost two years, OCCRP has been embroiled in a costly and time-consuming lawsuit brought against Paul Radu, the organization's co-founder, in London by an Azerbaijani businessman and member of parliament, Javanshir Feyziyev. Feyziyev was mentioned in our investigative project on the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a money-laundering network and financial fraud vehicle that moved billions of dollars through shell companies around the world, in his capacity as the one-time director and owner of Avromed, a major pharmaceutical company.

OCCRP journalists and their legal team in London. (Credit: OCCRP)

A murdered journalist. Shady offshore deals. A tiny nation in the grip of large-scale criminal interests. These are the leading factors behind the selection of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as the OCCRP 2019 Person of the Year in Organized Crime and Corruption.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is deeply concerned by yesterday's detention of Stevan Dojcinovic, a regional editor for OCCRP and founder of the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK) in Serbia, by local police upon arrival at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Stevan Dojcinovic

The Cypriot government responded on Saturday to an OCCRP investigation from Aug. 14. Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou described the report as “libel” and said “it did not correspond to reality.” The story reported that a law firm established and co-owned at the time by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades facilitated transactions with companies that are part of the Troika Laundromat, a secretive financial vehicle that has been used to carry out financial crimes.

Credit: Edint Pasovic

Libel is defined as inaccurate information that defames a person. But the report cannot constitute libel, as it relates only facts backed by documented evidence. We stand by our reporting.

The OCCRP story in question reports that:

(a) the law firm established by Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in the 1970s, of which he was a co-owner until February 2013, and of which his two daughters are now shareholders 

(b) facilitated transactions carried out by Batherm Ventures Limited and Matias Co. Limited, with Delco Networks S.A. and Gotland Industrial Inc., companies that were major players in the Troika Laundromat,

(c) which, in turn, is known to be a Russian-controlled financial vehicle that has been used to carry out financial crimes, including money laundering, tax evasion, bribes, and concealment of assets, many for senior leaders of politics and business in Russia.

(d) Mr. Anastasiades was a partner in the firm at the time these transactions took place.

(e) All the above are facts documented in the story and past OCCRP reports.

As a professional news organization, OCCRP takes accuracy extremely seriously. As with all our investigations, this story went through a rigorous fact-checking process. If any facts reported in the story are found to be in error, OCCRP will make the necessary correction. No one has denied any of these facts, and all are supported with documents OCCRP obtained. 

Both Mr. Anastasiades and the law firm, including every single one of its shareholders, were offered an opportunity to comment on the findings of the investigation several weeks ahead of publication. None of them opted to do so. 

When people think of whistleblowers they think of Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden or Daniel Ellsberg.

Yet whistleblowers seldom gain fame. Most remain anonymous by choice, content to provide investigative reporters with facts and evidence for crucial stories and then simply fade away.

Whistle (Photo: Zephryis BY CC 3.0)At some level, almost every journalist’s source is a whistleblower. Million-page document dumps are important, but so is disclosure of one page or even just one fact that a government or oligarch doesn’t want you to know.

Seldom acknowledged and almost never thanked, insiders who blow the whistle are the unsung heroes of a just society. Without them, corruption would run rampant, public institutions could evade accountability and the rapacious would go unchecked.

A globe-spanning panel of nine experts on organized crime, corruption and terrorism will select the 2018 Person of the Year in Organized Crime and Corruption for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

RISE Project, an award-winning investigative journalism outlet in Romania and OCCRP’s partner, was ordered Thursday by the Romanian Data Protection Authority (ANSPDCP) to reveal its sources under the threat of a fine of up to €20 million based on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) directive 679/2016.

Stockholm School of Economics The OCCRP is partnering up with the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga) Center for Media Studies to present the Journalism for Future Challenges program again this year.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is the Person of the Year for 2017, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an organization that has for six years recognized the individual who has done the most in the world to advance organized criminal activity and corruption.

Rodrigo Duterte (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)