Lithuanian authorities have launched an investigation into the procurement of Chinese-made protective face masks that, according to anOCCRP investigation, had fake certificates.

The European Commission recommended on Tuesday that member states withhold coronavirus aid from companies linked to countries that have been blacklisted for being non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

If governments fail to guard against fraud and bribery in health-care supply chains as they secure essential medicines and personal-protective equipment in the fight against COVID-19, human rights could be abused and lives could be lost, UN experts warned.

The judge who sent Nawaz Sharif behind bars for graft has been dismissed on Friday for violating the code of conduct, which paves the way for the former prime minister to be acquitted and for Pakistan’s political rift to deepen at a time the country is struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.

Substandard protective equipment for COVID-19 is being sold in over a dozen countries, using misleading certificates produced by businesses in the heart of Europe.

Undercover reporters from OCCRP and RISE Romania found a trade run by dealers with ties to organized crime, enabled by shady paperwork and made profitable by unscrupulous buyers.

A bizarre black market business developed in Pakistan as desperate families of critical COVID-19 patients are offering thousands of dollars for blood plasma from recovered patients.

Masks delivered to Romanian hospitals under a procurement contract that saw corruption charges being raised against the head of a state owned-company do not comply with safety standards, experts told OCCRP on Thursday.

The head of a state owned-company responsible for handling coronavirus medical equipment is being charged for soliciting a 760,000 euro (US$860,000) bribe from a firm in exchange for a major contract to supply Romanian hospitals with millions of masks and hundreds of thousands of protective suits. 

Kyrgyzstan has collected hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the coronavirus pandemic. But how that money is being spent remains a mystery — and even a government ministry seems perplexed.

A court in Zimbabwe released on Saturday the country’s health minister on bail after he was arrested over allegations of corruption and misuse of office regarding the procurement of coronavirus tests and other medical equipment.

A British non-profit filed a lawsuit against the UK government for awarding a 108 million pounds (US$136 million) contract for purchasing COVID-19 protective equipment to a small pest-control company from Sussex that has 16 employees - a move they see as dubious.

Germanpolice are looking for witnesses of the theft of 400,000 masks from that what it described as a carefully planned carjacking that took place on Monday.

The EU’s law enforcement agency (EUROPOL) launched on Friday a special unit that will try to help EU countries fight the increased number of criminal activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bosnia’s police detained late Thursday Fadil Novalić, the prime minister of one of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous regions, for his alleged involvement in the procurement of inadequate ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following a rash of prison riots, allegedly coordinated by inmates afraid of coronavirus infection, Italian authorities have so far released under house arrest more than 370 prisoners convicted of mafia-related offences, with almost 500 more requests pending review.

Drugs keep flowing despite the global pandemic.

Law enforcement authorities in Mexico have captured a fugitive cartel leader wanted by the US for the 2010 slaying of a pregnant American consulate worker and her husband.

The World Health Organisation is warning against claims that tobacco or nicotine consumption might reduce the dangers of the novel coronavirus, following controversial studies that anti-tobacco advocates say were financed by the industry. 

Amid growing concern over the impact of the novel coronavirus on the global economy, international agencies are beginning to anticipate how organised criminals across different sectors will be forced to adapt to the post-pandemic reality.