Online gambling is huge in Malta — but it's not all fun and games. Here's how the island's internet casinos have become cash machines for the Italian mafia.
Read more: How Maltese Online Gambling Became an ATM for the Italian Mafia
Hungarians with links to the country’s pro-government media have embarked on a mass buy-up of Macedonian news outlets, part of a concerted push into the Balkans by media companies loyal to Viktor Orban.
Camera crews wait before a press conference in Skopje, Macedonia, 2017.
Read more: Right-Wing Hungarian Media Moves Into the Balkans
How two unlikely business partners — a beloved Maltese footballer and a Libyan militia chief— enlisted help from a man connected to the Sicilian mafia to develop a multi-million-euro fuel smuggling business in the Mediterranean.
Fishing boats in Marsaxlokk harbor, Malta, with a view of the Delimara power station.
Read more: Death in a Smugglers’ Paradise
The journalists of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) face grave dangers and increasingly difficult challenges in their efforts to expose high-level corruption and government links to organized crime.
Read more: World Press Freedom Day 2018: Collaboration amid Historic Threats
Azerbaijan's state energy company won an opaque contract to sell gas to Malta. Documents obtained by investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia before her death indicate that the island's taxpayers could be overpaying by tens of millions of dollars a year.
An LNG tanker moored off the village of Marsaxlokk, location of the recently constructed Delimara Power Station, which runs on natural gas. Credit: Reuters
Read more: Maltese Taxpayers Losing Out in Gas Deal with Azerbaijan
As an independent investigative journalism outlet and media development organization, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) relies heavily on copyright to guarantee correct attribution of our work. This is vital to our journalism and investigative research.
Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
Read more: OCCRP's Position on the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market
Odesa mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov denies links to his former colleagues from the city's notorious "Oil Mafia." But the purchase of a luxury property in London could indicate otherwise.
Oxford Street, central London. A few minutes’ walk away are a number of properties connected to members of Odesa’s “oil mafia.”
Read more: London Apartments Show Ongoing Ties of Odesa Mayor to Oil Mafia
In the 1990s, “Angert’s Gang” in Odesa, Ukraine, was a powerhouse of crime. It diverted fuel sales from the reliably corrupt Odesa Refinery, extorted local businessmen, and even arranged the murders of local enemies and politicians.
Mayor of Odesa, and former member of the "Oil Mafia," Gennadiy Trukhanov.
Read more: The Odesa Mafia’s Secret Flats in London
Over the last three years, two top families in Azerbaijan’s ruling elite used dozens of secret accounts in Malta’s private Pilatus Bank to transfer cash into Europe and funnel millions of dollars into investments in luxury property, hotels, and businesses.
The flag of Pilatus Bank flies from its offices in Whitehall Mansions in Ta’ Xbiex, Malta. Photo (c): REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Read more: Pilatus: A Private Bank for Azerbaijan’s Ruling Elite
Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali is living a life of luxury, flying business class and staying in sumptuous hotels. How he can afford it on his official salary is anyone’s guess.
Sinisa Mali, the current (and likely future) mayor of Belgrade, appears to have had a lucrative time in office. Photo by OCCRP. Some rights reserved.
Read more: A weekend in Rome with Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali
