
FAQ: What's a Proxy? Using Relatives, Shell Companies, and Other Stand-Ins to Hide Illicit Wealth
One of the most effective ways to hide your ownership of valuable assets is to get someone – or something – to stand in...
One of the most effective ways to hide your ownership of valuable assets is to get someone – or something – to stand in...
One of the most effective ways to hide your ownership of valuable assets is to get someone – or something – to stand in as your “proxy.” Bad actors make regular use of these representatives to stash illicit wealth and move it around the world.
Turkish businessman Emin Uchar has made a fortune in Nakhchivan, an autonomous Azerbaijani territory between Iran, Turkey, and Armenia. New documents and interviews provide evidence he may have acted as a proxy for the family of autocrat Vasif Talibov, who ruled Nakhchivan for 27 years before resigning on December 21.
Read more: Azerbaijani Strongman’s Business Partner Builds Property Empire in Georgia
Mohammed Abdus Sobhan Miah worked as a cab driver, pizza cook, and drugstore clerk while living in New York City, but a few years after returning to Bangladesh to serve as an aide to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he started secretly snapping up properties in the city worth millions.
Anti-organized crime prosecutors are investigating China Tobacco in Romania for possible links to smuggling by organized crime groups.
Read more: Romanian Prosecutors Probe China Tobacco for Millions of ‘Disappeared’ Cigarettes
In late 2022, the European Union's top court struck a major blow to ownership transparency. What does it mean for journalists and anti-corruption campaigners?
Read more: FAQ: The EU Ruling on Ownership Transparency and What It Means for Journalists
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin wins OCCRP's 2022 Person of the Year award, which singles out those who wreak havoc around the world through organized crime and corruption.
Read more: OCCRP Names Yevgeny Prigozhin 2022 “Person of the Year” in Organized Crime and Corruption
Disgraced former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner personally funded an ethnically divisive disinformation campaign in Trinidad and Tobago designed by an election engineering firm to discourage black Trinidadians from voting.
Read more: Ex-FIFA Executive Jack Warner Financed “Election Engineering” Campaign in Trinidad
Not long after imposing sanctions on wood imports from Russia and Belarus, Europe saw an influx of wood supposedly coming from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Authorities say sanctions-busters are increasingly mislabeling wood as Central Asian so they can keep bringing it in to the EU.
Lawyers for Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich argue he should not be sanctioned because his ties to the Kremlin are weak, but new documents reveal he secretly had a years-long partnership with the Russian government in a forestry venture.
Read more: Abramovich Had Secret Partnership with Kremlin in Major Forestry Company
President Tokayev has vowed to clamp down on the theft of state assets, and billions of dollars have already been recovered. But experts fear that the president’s backroom decisions are leaving the public in the dark — and serving primarily his own interests.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is sworn in as president of Kazakhstan on November 26, 2022. (Photo: Xinhua/Alamy Live News)
Read more: Kazakhstan's President Vowed to Crack Down on Asset Theft. What’s the Reality?
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