Newly appointed Kyrgyz authorities have opened an investigation into corruption at the Kyrgyzstan’s State Customs Service (GTS), suspected of stealing millions of dollars from the country’s budget since 2016.

A group of Kyrgyz parliamentarians elected a former lawmaker as the country’s new prime minister on Saturday, days after his supporters freed him from prison during anti-government protests that erupted after last Sunday’s elections.

Here’s how Kyrgyz citizens banded together during a week of political chaos to take care of each other when their state couldn’t.

The anger over a disputed election result that culminated in a violent uprising on Monday turned by Thursday into confusion afterelection officials declared the Sunday vote void, leaving Kyrgyzstan in a power vacuum.

Enraged over an election they saw as undermined by rampant vote-buying, thousands stormed Kyrgyzstan’s parliament and presidential offices and took over government buildings throughout the country in an overnight revolution that on Tuesday forced election officials to declare the election void, OCCRP member center Kloop reported.

How a family of public officials in Kyrgyzstan amassed vast riches — and is now converting them into influence.

The son of a Kyrgyz lawmaker made a billion Kyrgyz som (US$12.8 million) on government fuel supply contracts he signed while his father sat on the parliament’s fuel and energy committee, independent news outletKloop reported last week.

A recent investigation has found that private companies in Kyrgyzstan are illegally obtaining lucrative public procurement contracts by rigging auctions online, in some cases suggesting possible collusion with government agencies.

Nearly half of donations received by a well-known Kyrgyz charity run by the powerful Matraimov family have been linked to an illicit underground network.

Kyrgyz lawmakers approved a report that was put together by a parliamentary commission which concluded that the government had nothing to do with the multi-million dollar corruption and money laundering scheme alleged last November by journalists.

Kyrgyzstan has collected hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the coronavirus pandemic. But how that money is being spent remains a mystery — and even a government ministry seems perplexed.

The GKNB presents its findings in front of a special committee in the Kyrgyz parliament. Photo by: Screen capture, Kyrgyz parliament YouTube channel.

Earlier today, in front of a special committee of the Kyrgyz parliament, the country’s intelligence agency presented the preliminary results of an investigation that was triggered by a reporting project released in November by RFE/RL’s Radio Azattyk, OCCRP, and its local member center, Kloop.

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.

Kyrgyz authorities are investigating a custom officer who could be involved in a scheme journalists of OCCRP, RFE/RL and Kloop revealed last year that saw millions of dollars being illegally funneled out of the country.

Internal documents detail investigations into inflated contracts and IT systems delays that hurt the country’s exporters.

Two Kyrgyz news media outlets, Radio Azattyk and Kloop, along with journalist Ali Toktakunov are standing trial on Wednesday as they face a prolonged lawsuit filed by the Matraimov family for exposing its involvement in a US$700 million money laundering operation. 

The Abdukadyr family made millions on the back of an illicit Central Asian cargo business. Now we know where the money ended up: exclusive villas, gleaming high-rises, and phantom investments across the world.

A Kyrgyz court unfroze on Friday the bank accounts of two media outlets and a journalist after they were briefly blocked by a libel suit an influential family filed over an article that revealed their alleged involvement in a corruption scheme.

A member of the Kyrgyzstan Parliament is proposing further government investigation following reports by OCCRP and its media partners that the country has harbored money laundering that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has cost the lives of currency couriers crossing its borders.

For years, a network of informal couriers has funneled millions of dollars out of Kyrgyzstan in cold, hard cash. The underground money transfer system fuels corruption, destroys transparency — and has claimed people’s lives. Here’s how it works.