After the U.N. climate panel report called this week for an urgent and drastic cut in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, experts told the OCCRP that organized crime and corruption play a significant role in the state of the climate crisis.

The United States levied sanctions on Monday against 23 Belarusian individuals and 21 entities close to President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, accusing it of repression and widespread corruption.

Leaked data exposes loopholes in Kenya’s procurement process, enabling graft.

Credit: Svetlana Tiourina

A controversial prosecutor is stepping in to fill the post left vacant by Guatemala’s top anti-corruption investigator Juan Francisco Sandoval, who was forced out of office just two weeks ago. 

France indicted a former justice minister with corruption, accusing her of accepting a substantial amount of money from the former CEO of the Renault-Nissan alliance Carlos Ghosn as lawyer’s fees, but prosecutors suspect the sum could be an illegal form of lobbying.

Is dishonest behavior contagious? 

When it comes to government corruption, it might be, says a new researchexamining if local corruption scandals inspire supermarket customers to steal groceries.

For the first time since the 18th century, a cardinal walked on Tuesday through the hallowed halls of the Vatican Museums to face trial for embezzlement, extortion, money laundering and abuse of office. 

While some EU countries continue to pursue their reform processes, the EU noted democratic backslides in Poland and Hungary and some concerning trends in other countries, according to a new Rule of Law Report that monitored the state of media freedom, corruption, and judicial systems in the Union’s 27 member states over the past six months.

In protest of the United Kingdom’s decision to put the son of President Teodoro Obiang Mangue on the latest list of individuals sanctioned for corruption, Equatorial Guinea said on Monday it will close its embassy in London.

The United States has barred former Honduran President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Sosa and his wife and former First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla Avila from entering the country due to “their involvement in significant corruption,” the State Department announced on Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged Brazilian officials and their representatives to refrain from harassing members of the press who cover them and rather encourage free reporting. The appeal came after President Jair Bolsonaro’s personal lawyer sent a lengthy and menacing message to a journalist reporting on alleged government corruption.

An Israeli court sentenced on Wednesday the country’s former deputy minister and senior member of a major right-wing party to 10 yearsin prison for bribery, fraud, money laundering, breach of trust, and tax evasion. She will also have to fork over a fine equivalent to US$274,000.

Costa Rica announced a bill on Tuesday that would deny construction companies with a history of corruption from participating in new public work projects. The move comes after a bribery network was uncovered in June and aims to make the government contracting process more transparent.

Forty minutes before midnight on Wednesday, the former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, handed himself in to police officers to begin his 15-month sentence for contempt of court.

Austria’s former vice chancellor and leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) went on trial on Tuesday in Vienna for helping change a law in order to accommodate the owner of a private hospital in exchange for a donation to his party and a weekend on the hospital owner’s yacht.

Corruption and discrimination often go hand in hand, causing a “double harm,” a joint study by Transparency International and the Equal Rights Trust released on Tuesday found.

Angolan authorities should drop criminal defamation charges against anti-corruption journalists Coque Mukuta and Escrivão José and stop trying to silence those who are exposing corruption, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement on Thursday.

Several close associates of Zagreb’s former mayor, including the head of the state media HRT, were arrested in Croatia on suspicion of corruption, bribery and abuse of power.

Peruvian presidential election candidate Keiko Fujimori, who is on trial for corruption and money laundering, still remains out of state custody after surviving a prosecutor’s failed attempted to return her to jail.

The rapid growth of the incarcerated population in Victoria, Australia, combined with rampant abuse of power by staff has led to “significant corruption risks” in prisons, said an anti-corruption report published last week.