About Us
The last five decades have seen the dramatic globalization of organized crime and corruption, now totaling trillions of dollars every year. With the help of a “criminal services industry” — corrupt banks, law firms, registration agents, and lobbyists — criminal networks have steadily grown their markets, and the world’s most corrupt officials and tycoons easily loot, launder, and hide stolen money for future use. The result is an unprecedented transfer of wealth and global web of high-level corruption and organized crime that has fueled global inequality, the rise of extremist groups, and the decline of democratic institutions all over the world.
OCCRP believes it takes a network to fight a network.
MISSION: By developing and equipping a global network of investigative journalists and publishing their stories, OCCRP exposes crime and corruption so the public can hold power to account.
VISION: A world where lives, livelihoods, and democracy are not threatened by crime and corruption.
As an investigative reporting platform for a worldwide network of independent media centers and journalists, OCCRP is reinventing investigative journalism as a public good. In the face of rising costs and growing threats to independent media, OCCRP provides media outlets and journalists with a range of critical resources and tools including digital and physical security and allows those covering the most sensitive topics to work in teams with trusted editors.
While upholding the highest journalistic ethics and editorial standards, OCCRP develops and deploys cutting-edge tech tools to enable collaborative, secure data-driven investigations. With OCCRP Aleph, an investigative data platform powered by software we developed, journalists can search and cross-reference more than three billion records to trace criminal connections and patterns and efficiently collaborate across borders.
OCCRP also partners with advocacy groups, arming civil society with information to meaningfully press for justice and change, and unearths evidence that enables law enforcement to act.
We see a future where corruption and organized crime are drastically reduced and democracy is strengthened as a result of a more informed citizenry, increased accountability, and sharply higher costs for criminal activity.
OUR THEORY OF CHANGE:
OCCRP exposes and explains the relationship between money and power and serves as a catalyst that arms others with the information needed to drive positive change. As investigative journalists, we expose crime and corruption at the highest levels. Using these revelations, advocates can press for policy reform and package information for law enforcement, which has the authority to act on evidence and deliver justice. Policymakers can point to investigative findings to pass legislation and advance reforms. Citizens who read our work get the information they need to act and organize on their own behalf.
