Rare Elephants’ Survival Roulette on Kenya-Tanzania Border
Roaming in his natural habitat, Gilgil crossed from Kenya into Tanzania, and paid for it with his life.
A herd of super-tusker elephants. (Photo: Aew,...
Roaming in his natural habitat, Gilgil crossed from Kenya into Tanzania, and paid for it with his life.
A herd of super-tusker elephants. (Photo: Aew,...
Khabibula Abdukadyr ran a Central Asian trading empire built on collusion with corrupt customs officials, was accused of laundering hundreds of millions in profits abroad — and got exposed. But far from being prosecuted, he and his family have only grown in influence, investing in dozens of high-profile projects around the world.
Their trading monopoly, built on bribery and alleged smuggling, was exposed. But that hasn't stopped the secretive Khabibula Abdukadyr and his relatives. With new political alliances and projects worth billions around the world, they’re more powerful than ever.
The Abdukadyr family earned hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to their alliance with corrupt officials in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Now their trading business is booming in Uzbekistan — where President Mirziyoyev’s government has welcomed them with open arms.
Read more: They Were Accused of Smuggling. Now They’re Partnering With the Uzbek State.
President Mirziyoyev promised reforms and transparency. But among the top foreign investors pouring money into his new Uzbekistan are the Abdukadyrs, a secretive family who made their fortune on bribery and political patronage.
For years, the Abdukadyr family’s self-confessed money launderer sent their money abroad using a variety of invented pretexts. Some U.S. bank officers got suspicious — but the transactions continued.
Read more: The Lies That Kept A Central Asian Money Launderer's Cash Flowing
In October 2022, Colombian journalist Rafael Moreno was shot dead. Six months after the assassination, 30 journalists continued his investigations into allegations of wide scale corruption and environmental damage. With new evidence, they revealed serious irregularities that confirmed a system of cronyism in public works contracts and exposed the methods of mining companies that Moreno was investigating.
Read more: Colombian Journalist: Kill Me But You Won’t Silence Me
Cypriot corporate service provider MeritServus helped Konstantin Malofeev, an oligarch sanctioned for his support of Russian-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, transfer debt worth tens of millions of dollars even after he was blacklisted, leaked documents show.
Read more: Cyprus Firm Helped Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Move Funds
OCCRP’s Pacific Editors Aubrey Belford and Dan McGarry will speak about their investigations into organized crime and corruption in the Pacific region in a live OCCRP Discussion on Monday, April 24, 2023.
Leaked documents show how Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, struck several wasteful deals — including one that allowed Belarus to avoid paying for $1.4 billion in oil it received from Venezuela.
In 2006, Muammar Gaddafi set out to invest billions in oil money across the continent, but even a simple project to add a Libyan-owned ferry line to Sierra Leone was undermined by nepotism and corruption. The factional chaos that followed Gaddafi’s fall has meant that nobody ever faced a reckoning.
Read more: How Libya’s Gaddafi-Era Graft Saddled Sierra Leone With a Faulty Ferry
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