Stimulus packages must include anti-corruption measures if they are to be successful,Transparency International warned the US Congress and the Senate ahead of Wednesday’s  adoption of a historic US$2 trillion rescue package aimed to help the economy crippled by the coronavirus pandemic.

As COVID-19 shut down the world in less than a month, cybercriminals seized the opportunity to use the Internet to defraud and blackmail people and companies.

Anti-graft efforts are stagnating or showing signs of backsliding in more than two-thirds of the world’s countries, including the most advanced economies of the G7, Transparency International (TI) warned on Thursday in its2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

When Cypriot police in July flagged a suspicious container bound for Sydney, Australian investigators intercepted the shipment and found a huge amount of ecstasy hidden inside aluminum barbeques. It took months of patience until they could make an arrest.

A former senior Australian bureaucrat, who a month ago tried to kill himself after he was charged with corruption, is set to plead guilty, his lawyer told Australia’s ABC news on Friday.  

Two customs agents and a man were charged with drug trafficking in what authorities are describing as Australia’s largest-ever seizure of methamphetamine after investigators discovered the drugs hidden inside a shipment of stereo speakers.

Police have charged a third person in connection with a multi-million dollar corruption scheme involving Western Australia's Department of Communities, Australia’s ABC News reported Monday. 

Regulators have begun civil proceedings against Westpac Banking Corporation alleging more than 23 million money laundering rule breaches, Australia’s anti money-laundering and terrorism financing regulator (AUSTRAC) said Wednesday.

Three days after authorities charged a senior Australian bureaucrat with pilfering more than AU$ 2.5 million (US$ 1.7 million), he was rushed in critical condition to a Perth hospital, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

Four men are in custody after Australian police uncovered a plot to smuggle 400 kilograms of crystal meth hidden in hot sauce bottles.

Australia’s former border security head will be the first witness called in the country’s inquest into corruption allegations regarding how the agency dealt with a high-profile casino company’s high-roller gamblers.

Australian authorities arrested six players of an online video game who allegedly lost the matches on purpose, betting against themselves and bringing in up to AUD 30,000 (US$20,200), ABC reported Monday.

Georgian authorities arrested last week several members of a child-trafficking crime group, accusing them of illegal production and distribution of child sexual exploitation material.

In the biggest bust for the state of Queensland–and the third largest in Australia–police seized 766 kilograms of pure MDMA powder on Tuesday and charged six people in connection with the case, including two UK citizens.

In a series of investigative articles published this week, Australian news outlets allege the Chinese president’s cousin was a part of an organized crime ring with ties to the Australian casino chain Crown.

Sydney authorities arrested three individuals on Thursday for running a business that acted as a front for a US$70 million money laundering syndicate serving organized crime groups, a New South Wales Policepress release announced. 

Officers found sound evidence of meth in stereos that arrived on a boat from Thailand, the Australian Border Force said Friday.

United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer has contributed AUS$70 million (US$48.2 million) to his party’s campaign, which ends on election day this Saturday, most of which he earned thanks to tax cuts he helped pass, media reported on Thursday.

Claims that a convicted New Zealand drug trafficker bribed his way out of being deported have been referred to a federal anti-corruption agency, Secretary Michael Pezzulo of Australia’s Home Affairs department told a Senate Estimates hearing on Friday.

Former Australian Taxation Office (ATO) employee turned whistleblower, Richard Boyle, has been charged with 66 offenses and could face up to 161 years in prison for exposing unethical practices in one of the country’s most powerful government agencies.