How to Hide a Russian Fortune on the French Riviera

In response to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, the European Union banned more than 100 Russian officials and businessmen from entering its territory and froze their European assets. The move was meant to punish well-connected Russians who have profited from their country’s aggression against Ukraine.

Boris Rotenberg’s previously unknown property in Eze, France. (Photo: Sophie Balaÿ)

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Rhinos Wanted – Dead or Alive

Major gaps between South African and Namibian legislation that regulates the endangered species trade allowed for the sale of at least 13 white rhino bulls from a South African game park to a Russian big game hunting outfit in Namibia. Nine of these rhinos were found to have died.

An adult and baby rhino at Kruger National Park in South Africa. (Photo: Violator1, Flickr)

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Paul Biya, Cameroon’s Roaming President

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, likes to travel abroad.

As a result, he’s missed some far-reaching events in the country he rules from afar.  Pages from the Cameroon Tribune relating to Paul Biya's travels. OCCRP journalists used the state newspaper as a primary source to chart the president’s numerous foreign trips since taking office. (Image: OCCRP / Authors.) Some rights reserved.

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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. The Spanish police who arrested Dadak believe he is a global arms trafficker, in bed with the French gangsters. His former business partners say his arms deals were fakes, designed to defraud them of money. Either way, high-level connections in his ancestral Poland appear to have protected him.

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The Ups and Downs of a Russian Anti-Doping Whistleblower

Dressed in gray coats with white scarves, Russian athletes marched into South Korea’s Pyeongchang Stadium carrying the Olympic flag instead of their own.

Russian athletes enter the stadium at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, 9 February 2018. (Photo (c): Daniel Karmann / Picture-Alliance / DPA / AP Images.)

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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 buy-up has included tens of millions of rounds of old ammunition of a type so unreliable that a previous attempt to sell it inspired a Hollywood movie.

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Madagascar Beach Resort Built with Black Money from Romania

Facing accusations of corruption, a former Romanian mayor left the country just before New Year’s, taking refuge in Madagascar.

The Mantasaly resort. (Mantasaly.com)

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Ex-Tajik Railways Chief’s Czech Bonanza

Amonullo Hukumov, the former head of Tajik Railways, has told the media that neither he nor his wife own any real estate abroad. But records obtained by OCCRP show that his family has spent over $10.7 million on luxury real estate in two of the Czech Republic’s most popular tourist destinations. The hefty price tag raises questions about the source of the family’s wealth.

The historical building at the heart of Karlovy Vary (center), which Amonullo Hukumov's wife Amina Musaeva bought in 2014 for $4.4 million. Credit: Pavla Holcova

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Death Squads, Bullying Earn Philippines Leader “Person of the Year” Title

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is the Person of the Year for 2017, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an organization that has for six years recognized the individual who has done the most in the world to advance organized criminal activity and corruption.

Rodrigo Duterte (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

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Millions in South African Lottery Grants Administered by Chicken Farmer

A school in a remote town in South Africa owned by a chicken farmer with a checkered business history was chosen by that country’s national lottery to handle almost US$ 3.7 million in grant money intended to help poor or under-served communities.

Logo of South African National Lottery (Credit: wikimedia.org).

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