Saudi Arabia initiated no less than 117 investigations into administrative and financial corruption related to the COVID-19 pandemic during the past month of Ramadan, the kingdom’s anti-corruption body announcedon Monday.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, EPPO, said it was concerned by Malta’s failure to nominate to the body its three candidates for the country’s representative in the College of Prosecutors which consequently delays the start of the EPPO’s operations.

A ruling party MP in Ukraine has tried to illegally obtain a Romanian passport via a company that facilitates ‘gray scheme’ EU citizenship applications, according toSlidstvo, OCCRP’s Ukrainian member centre.

Sudan will confiscate a number of large plots of land and residences in Khartoum from relatives of ousted PresidentOmar al-Bashir, after the country’s anti-graft committee found they were mostly acquired thanks to family ties.

The Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected two petitions brought against the country’s embattled prime minister, who sits at the centre of an ongoing corruption scandal.

The Philippines government launched a countrywide investigation into possible diversion of COVID-19 emergency subsidies, with President Rodriguo Duterte promising citizens money for denunciation.

Swiss police found that Sepp Blatter turned a blind eye to the illegal breach of a World Cup broadcasting contract and allowed FIFA to lose millions of dollars, the Associated Press reported last week.

A newlaw adopted by the Armenian parliament would allow prosecutors investigating unexplained wealth to petition courts in the country to take hold of any property worth more than US$100,000 and acquired after 1991, the year of the country’s foundation. 

Colombian authorities said that they have opened an investigation into the possible involvement of government officials in contract irregularities linked to the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

TheCouncil of Europe’s anti-graft body warned on Tuesday that the outbreak of COVID-19 “increases corruption risks,” and issuedguidelines for its 50 member states where to expect fraud, bribery or conflicts of interest.

Long-time rivals Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz signed on Monday a power-sharing deal that allows them to form a new emergency government, ending Israel’s year-long political deadlock but also giving Netanyahu, indicted in three corruption cases, the right to veto the appointment of a new state prosecutor and attorney general.

A former public official in Kyrgyzstan has accused his former boss of ordering the ‘dead or alive’ capture of a Prague-based journalist who helped expose rampant corruption at the country’s customs service.

Two prominent judges said on Thursday that with billions being poured into the fight against the coronavirus, the world needs now more than ever an International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC) “to punish and deter kleptocrats who enjoy impunity in the countries they rule.”

The International Monetary Fund’s response to the COVID-19 crisis is in desperate need of anti-corruption measures, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and Global Witness declared in a joint statement released Wednesday. 

Transparency International (TI) and dozens of civil society groups on Monday called for the protection of whistleblowers during the COVID-19 crisis and urged citizens to make sure governments and corporations are held accountable for their actions during the pandemic.

Family members of top government officials are involved in South Sudan’s corrupt gold mining sector which is booming and threatening the fragile peace that ended the five-year-long civil war, warned a new report by The Sentry. 

Around the world, governments are facing difficult decisions about how to address the spread of COVID-19 throughout their overcrowded correctional facilities, with many electing to or considering the option of releasing large portions of their non-violent inmates. 

The best-paid lobbyist behind Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Games bid reportedly said he gave expensive gifts to an eminent member of the International Olympic Committee who is currently facing trial for corruption in France.

In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Corruption Watch, South Africa’s Transparency International’s chapter, issued its2019 annual report on Tuesday, warning that many lives will be lost in the country now, “as a direct consequence of corruption.”

Ukrainian authorities are investigating an Ukranian lawmaker who posted videos that appear to be showing the brother of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff discussing bribes in return for appointments at various government positions, the Kyiv Post reported on Tuesday.