A former interior minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina charged in November with fraud vanished Tuesday after being released from pretrial detention earlier this month, local media reported.

Macedonian officials extradited a Kazakh man suspected of fraud on Wednesday following his May arrest in the Balkan country, Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry (MVD) said in a statement.

A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a man who swindled a politician out of more than US$ 6 million by convincing him to invest in a fictitious Kremlin-managed investment fund, local media reported.

The casual, obscenity-laden telephone transcript splashed in Bosnian media at the start of this month appeared to reveal a startling act: One of the country’s most powerful politicians being told that he was protected from major corruption investigations.

An investigation by OCCRP partner the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) has revealed evidence indicating that a Kazakh behind a multi-billion dollar banking scam secretly owned one of Belgrade’s most popular concert venues.

The Spanish Civil Guard dealt a major blow to an organized money-laundering ring with connections to two Russian crime syndicates on Tuesday. The operation, two years in the making, was named “Usura” and was supported by Europol. 

A Communist era law that lets convicts in Romania cut down on jail sentences in exchange for publishing scientific works will now be amended, as abuse of the law has spiraled out of control, according to Balkan Insight.

Europol recently launched its annual multi-partner operation aimed at cracking down on organized crime throughout Europe. Results ranging from human trafficking to airline fraud have been coming in. 

This week, OCCRP partner re:Baltica published a series of investigations into the business dealings of Uzbekistan’s elite in Latvia with stories of fraud, bribery and attempted assassination.

An Estonian national who ran an internet fraud scheme that infected more than four million computers worldwide was sentenced yesterday to more than seven years in prison, the US Attorney’s Office in New York said.

Israeli police are investigating a possible US$ 65 million fraud at the world’s largest diamond exchange in Ramat Gan, a city east of Tel Aviv, the Guardian reported.

Prosecutors have charged a former Manhattan restaurant owner over an alleged multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme in which investors were told their money would be invested in a liquor business, a US Attorney’s Office news release said Friday.

Interpol and Europol coordinated with national agencies across 57 countries to carry out their largest-ever seizure of dangerous fake food and drink, news releases by the two agencies said Wednesday.

Swiss prosecutors have charged an ex-Credit Suisse wealth manager with fraud, misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, Bloomberg reported. The bank also faces a money laundering probe in Italy, Reuters said.

The US Department of Justice has charged three people from Turkey and Iran with moving hundreds of millions of dollars for the government of Iran and Iranian companies, in an apparent attempt to evade economic sanctions.

US authorities have charged Bulgarian resident Nedko Nedev with six counts of fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, according to the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.

It took five days and nearly 200 interviews, but police across Europe last week arrested 81 people accused of working as “money mules” for cybercriminals, helping transport or launder an estimated € 7.5 million (US$ 8.1 million), according to Dutch police.

Sixty-nine homes and offices across Europe were raided and nine suspects were arrested in connection with online forums that were used for illegal operations, according to a news release from German police on Monday.  

Lithuania has granted refugee status to one of the fugitive brothers-in-law of Kazakh billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The man charged with investigating as much as US$ 1 billion allegedly stolen from aid to Palestine said that over the past five years, he has recovered only US$ 70 million, according to Reuters.