Ukrainian lawmakers have launched the process to impeach President Petro Poroshenko following an eruptive media report linking him to a corruption scandal involving the President’s friends who have allegedly stolen from the country’s defense industry.

Brazil needs to enact wide-ranging reforms in its political and judicial systems and “move beyond purely punitive initiatives” to combat corruption, Transparency International Brasil said over the weekend.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has established a special tribunal to expedite prosecutions and recover the proceeds of corruption amidst an ongoing state capture inquiry that has dominated South African politics for two years, the Office of the President announced in a statement. 

Thousands rallied against the Albanian government on Thursday, claiming it is corrupt and linked to organized crime, as opposition lawmakers resigned from parliament, demanding an early election.

Lithuanian authorities detained on Wednesday 26 people, including judges and lawyers, in a large-scale anti-corruption probe of the judiciary. The suspects are accused of large-scale bribery, trading in influence and abuse of powers.

The branch leader of a Russian anti-corruption organization, Dmitry Gribov, was beaten to death in a town outside Moscow on Monday evening.

A London court last week ordered the son of the former Prime Minister of Moldova to hand over nearly half a million pounds following an investigation conducted by the UK’s National Crime Agency.

The former president of the Maldives was charged with grand corruption, money laundering and theft on Wednesday, the Diplomat, a Tokyo-based news magazine covering the Asia-Pacific, reported.

The primary whistleblower in South Africa’s state capture inquiry was among seven suspects  who have been charged with corruption, money laundering, and fraud, Business Day, a daily newspaper in South Africa, reported.

Zambia’s Minister of Infrastructure and Housing was arrested this week for corruption, the Lusaka Times, an online newspaper, reports.

Russian authorities arrested ruling party official Rauf Arashukov in parliament on Wednesday for allegedly ordering two contract killings and being involved in a criminal organization, according to a statement by the Russian Investigative Committee.

Saudi authorities charged 126 local government employees across the country with corruption, abuse of power and other crimes as part of a controversial anti-corruption campaign that started in 2017.

Polish authorities arrested a former defence ministry official, a former parliamentarian and four more suspects as part of an investigation into the mismanagement of assets at the country’s state-owned defence firm, according to a statement released on Monday.

Failure to curb corruption is contributing to a worldwide crisis of democracy, corruption watchdog Transparency International said in its 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released on Tuesday.

South Africa’s anti-corruption agency found “major systemic weaknesses” in a land reform project which resulted in the fraudulent acquisition of land worth more than 382 million rand (US $28 million), according to a report exposed Thursday by the South African newspaper Business Day.

The EU lost more than nine billion euros (US$10 billion) to fraud between 2002 and 2017, with Member States often doing little to prevent or punish those identified as suspects, a new report revealed on Thursday.

New York legislators unveiled new measures on Tuesday intended to address chronic corruption on the same day former state Senate leader Dean Skelos began a four year sentence on charges of bribery and extortion.

A former state attorney general from Mexico is facing life in prison for using his position as a top law enforcement official to facilitate drug trafficking into the United States in exchange for bribes, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announcedlast week.

Russia’s former minister of industry acquired stakes in golf courses worth many millions. The properties were once owned by people associated with a major pipe manufacturer that would have fallen under his purview as minister.

Viktor Khristenko, formerly Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade. (Photo: Kremlin.ru)

The day Macedonia requested his extradition, former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski announced he has been granted political asylum in Hungary, where he fled days before he was to serve his two-year jail sentence for corruption.