“For decades, a dark cloud of sorts has hovered over the country and reality has been tainted, what was once beautiful has become horrid, what was moral has become immoral. Miss Venezuela … could be no exception, it could not save itself from this plague. Nothing could.”
Goodbye to Miss Venezuela, a novel by Francisco Suniaga
The 2017 Miss Venezuela pageant. (Photo: EFE news agency)
Read more: Miss Venezuela Pageant: Saints and Beauty Make Toxic Mix
A tax-exempt company said it would supply inexpensive food to the people of the DRC. But leaked documents reveal that it received millions from the central bank illegally -- only for the money to disappear into accounts linked to the president’s cronies.
UNICEF distributes food in South Kivu, DRC. (Julien Harneis, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Read more: DRC Company Promised Cheap Food, Delivers Stolen Money
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. The documents were obtained by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which organized a collaborative investigation with dozens of outlets across the world, including the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Read more: Paradise Papers
In partnership with Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banks, companies controlled by or connected to the wealthy and politically-connected Gupta family via its lieutenants extracted more than 1 billion rand (US$ 67.2 million) from Transnet, a state-owned company charged with constructing rail, port, and other transportation infrastructure to serve South African citizens.
Credit: www.transnet.net
Read more: Guptas, Nedbank skillfully extract money from South African state firm
Artūras Skardžius, a member of the Lithuanian parliament who is deeply involved in energy issues, is under investigation for a windfall his family received from renting land to a company that subleased parts of it to a wind farm.
Wind turbines in Lithuania's Šilutė district. (Photo by: Lukas Balandis / 15min)
Read more: An Ill Wind: Lithuanian MP Investigated over Windfall, Gazprom Ties
A Novaya Gazeta and OCCRP investigation looks into the wealth surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Read more: Putin and the Proxies
Three years after I investigated bogus international awards sold for thousands of euros, I got invited to pick up mine -- for a small fee of just €4,750.
A screenshot of the Otherways web site.
Read more: Awards for Sale
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) strongly condemns the murder of Maltese investigative reporter and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Photo credit: daphnecaruanagalizia.com
Read more: OCCRP Condemns the Murder of Maltese Reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia
For long-serving spy Gjorgi Lazarevski, a 2010 raid on one of Macedonia’s few remaining independent TV stations was the last straw.
Gjorgi Lazarevski, a former Macedonian intelligence officer who helped expose a massive wiretapping scheme that brought down the government. (Credit: Nova TV)
Read more: The Spy Who Overthrew Macedonia’s Government
Ancient hardwood trees in Namibia’s Caprivi State Forest are being poached by a controversial Chinese businessman who’s exploiting legal loopholes the government won’t close.
Felled trees in the Caprivi State Forest. (Credit: John Grobler)
Read more: Felling Namibia’s Ancient Giants
