The now-bankrupt U.S. opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma L.P. pleaded guilty on Tuesday to misleading the government about the sales of one of its drugs that played a role in the country’s opioid crisis. The confession ended the investigation that led to a multi-billion dollar settlement between the company and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The US$8.3 billion settlement by opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma announced by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) Wednesday may not encompass billions the company has allegedly stashed offshore.

The Swiss and Uzbek governments established terms for the return of US$131 million in assets confiscated from the daughter of the former Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Gulnara Karimova had stashed some of her ill-gotten money in Switzerland, relying on the prominent financial secrecy jurisdiction to hide a portion of her offshore fortune.

The power struggle between President Bashar al Assad of Syria and his maternal cousin, Rami Makhlouf, appears to have intensified after the billionaire tycoon proclaimed in a Facebook post that he helped the regime set up offshore front companies so that it could avoid sanctions.  

As Argentina has been renegotiating its US$65 billion debt with foreign creditors, it is also grappling with the fact that up to six times that amount is believed to be held by its citizens and companies offshore.

(Credit: OCCRP)

A new leak of bank documents shows millions flowed through a former Armenian customs official’s offshore account in the Isle of Man.

King Felipe VI said he will renounce his inheritance in response to the largest corruption scandal implicating the Spanish royal family since the county’s transition to democracy at the end of the 1970’s. But some say the announcement is meaningless as the law won’t let him do that.

The European Union adopted a much-anticipated blacklist of 17 tax-haven countries on Tuesday, opening the door for future sanctions against them, Reuters reports. 

Only two days after she received the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova was on Thursday presented the prestigious2017 Allard Prize for International Integrity.