Openlux
Luxembourg is tiny, but it holds big secrets. A joint investigation into the country’s corporate register shows how corrupt officials, criminals, and politically exposed people use it to hide their doings.
OCCRP Projects
The Matraimov Kingdom
How a family of public officials in Kyrgyzstan amassed vast riches — and is now converting them into influence.
The FinCEN Files
In a series of articles presented this week, the FinCEN Files crack open the usually secretive world of international bank regulation to show how the system works, and how it fails
Biometric Bribery
Semlex is an unassuming Brussels-based company that supplies biometric documents such as passports and driving licenses to governments and international bodies.
Group America
A low-profile US-Serbian gang has trafficked cocaine to Europe for decades. Some credit its longevity to friends in the shadows.
The Cruel Road North
Every year, Latin American smuggling networks exploit thousands of people from Africa and Asia as they try to make their way to the United States and Canada.
Riviera Maya Gang
They weren’t the people you’d peg for success in the world of finance and technology: a group of young men from a small city in an agricultural region of Romania. But they were clever and they had grit — and a unique skill set.
Blowing Unsmoke
An art object. A fashion accessory. A medical treatment. A scientifically advanced gadget. And even, recently, a solution to COVID-19-induced lockdown boredom.
Balkan Cocaine Wars
The rivalry between the Škaljari and the Kavač clans, which originated on opposite sides of a single mountain on Montenegro’s Adriatic coast, has upended the criminal underworld in the region.
Slaves to Progress
Few authoritarian states have worked harder than Azerbaijan to leverage major international events to boost their image on the world stage.
Revolution to Riches
The military incursion into Venezuela’s economy.
Crime, Corruption, and Coronavirus
Countries around the world are struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic. But in times of crisis, there are those who seek their own advantage.
Without a Trace
Last century, tobacco was one of the world’s most successful industries. This century, if current trends continue, it is expected to kill one billion people.
Fraud Factory
One January night in Kyiv, a company called Milton Group threw a glitzy New Year’s party for its staff.
The State Capture Papers
In a South African corruption scandal so grand it became known as “state capture,” former President Jacob Zuma is alleged to have colluded with members of the wealthy and influential Gupta family to embezzle billions of dollars of public funds.
A Journalist’s Undying Legacy
Slovak reporter Ján Kuciak dedicated his life to holding power to account. Now OCCRP is creating a resource for others to continue his work.
#29leaks
What do a Swedish Hells Angels boss, an Iranian state oil company, the Italian mob, and a fake Gambian bank have in common?
Plunder and Patronage in the Heart of Central Asia
“I’m Aierken Saimaiti,” the man said. “Between 2011 and 2016, I transferred more than $700 million out of Kyrgyzstan.”
The Austrian Bank Job
When it came to stripping assets from their financial institutions, Eastern European bankers found the infrastructure they needed in a century-old Austrian bank.
Public Land, Private Hands
Between 2000 and 2008, authorities in Kyrgyzstan divided up a large swath of Ataturk Park, a beloved green space in the country’s capital, Bishkek, and handed it out to 173 people — many of them wealthy and well-connected.
The Great Gambia Heist
For more than two decades, Yahya Jammeh ruled over Gambia, a tiny West African country known for tropical beaches and tranquility in a region often rocked by conflict.
The Troika Laundromat
Laundromats are complex systems for moving money that allow corrupt politicians, organized crime figures, and wealthy business people to secretly invest their ill-gotten millions, launder money, evade taxes, and fulfill other goals.
Unfinished Lives, Unfinished Justice
One year ago, a former policeman slipped into the home investigative journalist Ján Kuciak shared with his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, and shot them both at close range, authorities say.
Euros to the East
In collaboration with Danwatch, a Danish investigative research center, OCCRP looked into an EU program that provided surveillance gear, patrol vehicles, and other equipment to Belarusian and Ukrainian authorities.
The Chávez Man and His Millions
Venezuela's economy is in ruins, but there are still fortunes to be made. One of these — estimated to be worth $100 million — is that of a man named Carlos Luis Aguilera Borjas. And he's not just a businessman.
Death On The Border
Seven months ago, three employees of the Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio were abducted in the Mataje River region on the border between Ecuador and Colombia.
Paradise Leased: The Theft of the Maldives
Maldives tourism isn’t all swaying palm trees and white sand beaches. The truth is something far uglier.
The Panama Papers: The Aftermath
Two years after the original Panama Papers leaks, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung has received a fresh trove of leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca, the now-defunct Panamanian law firm.
Dubai’s Golden Sands
Dubai has transformed itself into an extravagant metropolis where the police drive Lamborghinis and edible gold ice cream costs US $800 a scoop.
Tajikistan: Money by Marriage
Since marrying one of the seven daughters of the president of Tajikistan, a young businessman has built an empire that stretches across the country.
Birth and Death in Venezuela's Time of Hunger
Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is threatening those who carry the future in their bellies. Pregnant women are going without adequate food or medical attention in the midst of a national economic emergency.
The Daphne Project
Six months ago, Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally killed by a car bomb just meters from her home. The investigation into her killing is ongoing, but there is little doubt that she was murdered because of her work.
Gold for Visas
For refugees and poor migrants, travel can be terrifying, with no guarantee of a welcome at the end. For the one percent, it's a different story.
A Murdered Journalist's Last Investigation
In late February 2018, Jan Kuciak, a young Slovak investigative journalist, was shot dead. His fiancée was killed alongside him.
Theatre of War
In just a few years, Pierre Konrad Dadak rose from a small-time Parisian fraudster to become a top representative for one of Central Europe’s biggest arms companies.
War Dog Millionaire
Jaroslav Strnad, the chief financial backer of the Czech president, has been secretly snapping up arms stockpiles and factories throughout the Balkans with the help of a cast of notorious local characters.
The Faces of the Victims of Corruption
Corruption is everywhere. An estimated $1 trillion is paid in bribes and another $2.6 trillion is stolen worldwide every year, according to the United Nations.
Paradise Papers
The Paradise Papers is a major new leak of documents from two offshore services firms based in Bermuda and Singapore, as well as from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in secret offshore jurisdictions.
Putin and the Proxies
When it comes to distribution of wealth, Russia is one of the world’s most unequal major countries. In the quarter-century since the collapse of the Soviet Union, capitalism has arrived with a vengeance.
Gold and Chaos in Orinoco
A joint investigation by Efecto Cocuyo and OCCRP explores the Orinoco Mining Arc — the Venezuelan government's controversial attempt to find new sources of wealth — and the devastating effects of the mining on the people who live there.
The Azerbaijani Laundromat
The Azerbaijani Laundromat is a complex money-laundering operation and slush fund that handled $2.9 billion over a two-year period through four shell companies registered in the UK.
Spooks and Spin: Information War in the Balkans
Great power politics has returned to the Balkans. The countries of the region – riven by authoritarianism, political rivalry, and ethnic tensions – are caught between an increasingly assertive Russia and a NATO eager for new allies.
Agents of Influence
Bombardier is a Canadian transportation conglomerate that controls Bombardier Transportation, a Swedish engineering firm and one of the world’s largest producers of railway signaling equipment.
Laundromat
Three years ago, OCCRP exposed the “Russian Laundromat” - an immense financial fraud scheme that enabled vast sums to be pumped out of Russia. The money was laundered and moved into Europe and beyond through bribery and a clever exploitation of the Moldovan legal system.
The Moldovan Banking Wars
Moldovan banks are in a life-and-death struggle. Many have been involved in money laundering and asset thefts that have moved tens of billions of dollars from Russia to the West.
Making a Killing
Since the outbreak of war in Syria, weapons from Central and Eastern Europe have flooded the conflict zone through two distinct pipelines – one sponsored by Saudi Arabia and coordinated by the CIA, and the other funded and directed by the Pentagon.
The Panama Papers
One of the biggest leaks in journalistic history reveals the secretive offshore companies used to hide wealth, evade taxes and commit fraud by the world's dictators, business tycoons and criminals.
Internet Ownership Project
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Euractiv and RISE Project spent months investigating who owns the Internet across Eastern Europe.
Mayor’s story
Siniša Mali, the powerful mayor of the Serbian capital of Belgrade and a close associate and former advisor of current Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, prides himself on being a modern, progressive leader.
The Prodigal Daughter
Since her divorce and return to Uzbekistan in 2001 Gulnara Karimova, the elder daughter of President Islam Karimov, has received some US$1 billion worth of shares and payments from mobile phone companies in exchange for her influence.
Persona de Interés
A project to list persons of interest in Mexico and South America.
The Two Bosses
Seven years after a charismatic mobster was gunned down outside a Sarajevo apartment building, prosecutors think they know what happened that night and who was involved—a suspected drug trafficker and a former media mogul now running for president of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Russian Laundromat
Call it the Laundromat. It’s a complex system for laundering more than $20 billion in Russian money stolen from the government by corrupt politicians or earned through organized crime activity
Veggie Scam
What Connects Terrorists In Iraq, Cleaning Ladies In Ukraine, And Dodgy Businessmen In Turkey? Vegetables And Tax Fraud. A Series Of Scams Helped Al Qaeda And Hurt Romanian Tax Officials To The Tune Of At Least € 50 Million.
Most Wanted List
A list of some of the key figures in organised crime. The list is based on nominations from OCCRP editors and reporters.
Unholy Alliances
Montenegro has long desired to become a Balkan Monte Carlo. But instead it has become something unique in the Balkans: a crime state.
Jail Crunch
OCCRP journalists conducted dozens of interviews with convicted criminals throughout Eastern Europe. The videos are an extension of the Jail Crunch visualization and provide a personal window into how crime works in the region.
YanukovychLeaks
On Feb. 22, volunteer divers found nearly 200 folders of documents at a lake at the residence of former president of Ukraine. They had been thrown in the lake to destroy them as people were escaping the compound.
Georgia: Sex, Files and Videotape
While the numbers keep changing as more material is discovered, the Georgian government has recorded at least 18,000 secret video and audio files since the Rose Revolution in 2003.
The Battle for Mineral Resources
n March 2012, two Romanians and a Serbian businessman met in a posh restaurant of the Pullman Hotel near downtown Bucharest to heatedly discuss how much to pay to bribe a judge and how to do it without getting caught.
A Murderer's Trail
In November of 2012, a Mercedes pulled up to a home not far from downtown Bucharest, the capital of Romania. As the young driver got out of his car, a thin, blonde man in his early 30s emerged from the shadows and fired a dozen bullets from a Kalashnikov rifle into his chest and head.
Magnitsky Stories
When reporters followed the money, the path was clear -- a Moldovan ghost company was used to transfer funds stolen from the Russian tax authority to an international real estate company named Prevezon.
First Bank – First Family
OCCRP first looked into First Bank in 2009 for a story with ICIJ. From that point, we continued to collect documents and talk to people. Many people wanted to talk over the years but couldn’t.
Drug Cartel's Mystery Man
A Montenegrin businessman charged last month in Serbia for his involvement in smuggling nearly two tons of cocaine.
The Proxy Platform
While governments and citizens of Eastern Europe were struggling with the recent financial crisis and trying to borrow money from international financial institutions, billions of euros circulated in the region in an illegal, parallel, system that enriched organized crime figures and corrupt politicians.
Visual Investigative Scenarios
(VIS) is a data visualization platform designed to assist investigative journalists, activists and others in mapping complex business or crime networks.
Big Trouble at Big Tobacco
Reports piled up from Japan Tobacco International (JTI) investigators around the globe. Mobsters were doing business with the firm's Russian distributorship while shipping tons of illegal cigarettes into Europe.
Man in the middle
The RS Special Prosecutor's Office charged Bosnian-born Serbian businessman Zoran Ćopić with laundering money for reputed drug lord Darko Šarić. Other important names show up.
The Mišković Millions
The National Bank of Serbia said it has found “certain irregularities,’’ with the ownership Universal Bank during a review of minority shareholders prompted by a Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) – Serbia investigation.
Offshore Crime, Inc.
East European criminals and corrupt politicians have found in offshore havens a tool so perfect that it has permanently changed how business is done in the region.
OCCRP People Of Interest
A list of people that OCCRP was tracking in 2010 - mainly focussed on the Balkans.
Security Chaos
They began to rise when the old political systems started crumbling. Trained professional soldiers simply switched to private security companies, protecting banks, schools, money transfers and important people.
Document Dilemma
Investigations across the region by reporters with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have turned up many ways to bend or break the law in obtaining identity documents, as opposed to using the regular legal procedures.
Tobacco Underground
The Central Bank of Montenegro cited “improper reporting” as reason for a special audit of the troubled First Bank, which is controlled by the family of Prime Minister Milo Đukanović.
The Big Bet
Across the region, countries are courting gamblers and the gambling industry, betting that they can use it to boost revenues in bleak economic times.
Battered Justice
Across Eastern Europe, justice systems fail to prosecute cases of organized crime and corruption, resulting in a debased political climate, graft, and, in some cases, sanctions from the international community.
Game of Control
Football has ugly, sometimes lethal aspects not immediately obvious to the billions of fans around the world who watch their favorite teams in stadiums or on television.
