We have a winner.
The 2020 Corrupt Person of the Year is…
🏆 Jair Bolsonaro 🏆
Learn why our judges selected the President of Brazil over the other three finalists.
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Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
@OCCRP
It takes a network to fight a network. Exposing crime and corruption so the public can hold power to account. Donate: occrp.org/en/donate RT ≠ endorsement
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’s posts
BREAKING: Leaked bank records show how Credit Suisse helped dictators, corrupt politicians, spies, and criminals hide their illicit fortunes.
This is #SuisseSecrets, one of the world’s largest investigations into the world of Swiss banking 🇨🇭
BREAKING: OCCRP and partners have uncovered dozens of assets tied to Russia’s ruling class. And this is just the beginning.
We'll continue to identify and catalog their yachts, mansions, and other ill-gotten gains here, in #RussianAssetTracker 🔍
BREAKING: Leaked emails reveal that a Kremlin-linked lobbying group offered payments to several European politicians to promote pro-Russia policies.
Legitimizing the annexation of Crimea being chief among them.
Here’s what we found👇
#KremlinConnection
UPCOMING: Leaked records of 18,000 bank accounts holding assets worth $100+ billion.
OCCRP and 47 other media outlets have been working on one of the world’s largest investigations into the shadowy world of Swiss banking.
It’s called #SuisseSecrets
NEW: On the eve of Catalonia's 2017 vote for independence, mysterious Russians reportedly offered 10,000 troops to help the territory break from Spain.
Now OCCRP and partners reveal new details about this #RussianOffer, how it was made — and by whom. 1/
Chinese drone manufacturer DJI stopped selling its products in Russia and Ukraine after the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion — yet its drones have still ended up on battlefields.
How? We reveal how Russian firms are importing them via Kazakhstan.
occrp.org/en/investigati
BREAKING: A massive worldwide leak of 11 million+ documents from a slew of offshore service providers exposes the secret wealth and schemes of political leaders, celebrities, and criminals.
These are our investigations as part of the #PandoraPapers 👇 1/
NEW: For years, Vladimir Putin has denied any connection to the palace, villas, and other assets that reporters have tied to him.
But we found that these properties have something in common: The companies that own them are secretly interconnected. /1
🇺🇦 NEW: Two Ukrainian girls were forced to live in Russian institutions and pressured to abandon their identities — until journalists helped them escape.
Thousands more Ukrainian children remain in Russian hands.
TOMORROW: 400+ reporters. 88 countries. Trillions in banking secrets.
OCCRP is part of the #FinCENFiles, a global investigation led by and .
We release our findings on Sunday.
UPCOMING: Few are better at obscuring their ill-gotten gains than Russia’s ruling class. Assets seized thus far represent only a fraction of their true wealth.
So OCCRP, , and 25 other media outlets have teamed up to hunt down the rest. #RussianAssetTracker
Erdoğan 🇹🇷 Bolsonaro 🇧🇷 Trump 🇺🇸 Kolomoisky 🇺🇦
From these finalists, our judges selected the 2020 Corrupt Person of the Year.
Learn why they ultimately chose the President of Brazil.
Finalists for the 2021 Corrupt Person of the Year
🇦🇫 Asraf Ghani
🇸🇾 Bashar Al-Assad
🇹🇷 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
🇦🇹 Sebastian Kurz
And the winner, 🇧🇾 Aleksandr Lukashenko.
See why our judges selected the Belarusian president.
After Russia annexed Crimea, multiple legislatures in Europe passed motions advocating for dropping EU sanctions over the invasion.
We reveal that many of the politicians behind these resolutions were in touch with Kremlin propagandists.
The story: occrp.org/en/investigati
NEW: Leaders of intelligence agencies in Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan are tied to Credit Suisse accounts that swelled in value as they served key roles in U.S.-led wars. #SuisseSecrets
NEW: One of the largest leaks of banking records and related documents ever reveals an $8.8 billion network of offshore companies that allowed corrupt politicians and criminals to secretly launder money and hide assets abroad. Here’s the #TroikaLaundromat. occrp.org/en/troikalaund
NEW: The son of a prominent Azerbaijani official lives in a luxurious London flat. But he didn’t buy this property, an obscure offshore company did.
This story raises serious questions about this deal that implicate a powerful Turkish businessman. 1/
🚨 BREAKING: The Moscow apartment of Roman Anin, editor-in-chief of OCCRP member center , is currently being raided by the FSB. /1
Quote
К Роману Анину с обыском пришла ФСБ
Несколько минут назад мы узнали, что к главному редактору «Важных историй» Роману Анину пришли с обыском сотрудники ФСБ. Подробностей мы не знаем.
Роман не выходит на связь.
На место уже едут адвокаты.NEW: Meet Inna Yashchyshyn, aka Anna de Rothschild, the Ukrainian grifter who blagged her way into Trump’s Florida residence and mingled with top Republicans after posing as a member of a European banking dynasty.
Our investigation with 👇1/
occrp.org/en/investigati
The former CEO of the Federal Savings Bank was sentenced to prison for bribing Paul Manafort to secure a senior position in Donald Trump's administration.
NEW: Leaked emails reveal how the Rotenberg brothers, two of the most prominent Russian oligarchs, dodged Western sanctions for years.
This is the #RotenbergFiles 🔍
Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao abused the power and resources of her office, according to a report released by the Transportation Department’s inspector general.
Replying to
On the night before the historic vote, Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont met a man whom separatist leaders privately referred to as "Putin’s envoy.”
This was Nikolai Sadovnikov, a longtime diplomat who reportedly claimed to have a direct line to Vladimir Putin. 2/
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Reporters found real estate throughout the EU worth millions of dollars tied to Roman Abramovich, the owner of FC Chelsea, including:
➡️ An estate in St. Tropez 🇫🇷 — Est. value unknown
➡️ A house on Lake Fuschl 🇦🇹 — Est. value $15.3M
Chinese drone manufacturer DJI stopped selling its products in Russia and Ukraine after the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion — yet its drones have still ended up on battlefields.
How? We reveal how Russian firms are importing them via Kazakhstan.
occrp.org/en/investigati
BREAKING: Ukrainian oligarchs Igor Kolomoisky & Gennadiy Bogolyubov, who formerly owned the country's largest commercial lender Privatbank, have lost an appeals case to have nearly $2bn in frozen assets released.
The men oversaw the alleged theft of $5.5 billion from the bank.
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Despite facing unprecedented scrutiny, we found that Russia's ruling class has still been able to effectively control lucrative assets abroad through opaque corporate structures and proxies.
Here are a few examples we've uncovered so far 👇
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….a promise that an independent Catalonia would pass legislation to become a haven for cryptocurrency.
Puigdemont “shit himself” at their offer, according to an associate. He made no promises. 5/
U.S. and European authorities have dismantled a cryptocurrency laundering service used by North Korean and Russian state-backed hackers, Europol claims.
Twelve years ago today, 's Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in Russia. It's a black day for journalism as we hear news of the brutal killing of reporter #VictoriaMarinova in #Bulgaria last night, the third journalist killed in Europe in one year. #PressFreedom
🏆 We have a winner 🏆
The 2022 Person of the Year in Organized Crime and Corruption is…
🇷🇺 Yevgeny Prigozhin 🇷🇺
Here’s why our judges selected the Russian oligarch over the other three finalists.
NEW: Starting in 2008, a small U.S. airline was taken over by a group of Russian investors. Two were later convicted of running an organized crime ring out of Trump Tower.
But Monarch Air’s unusual past didn’t stop it winning U.S. gov’t contracts 🛩️
occrp.org/en/investigati 1/
NEW: The Israeli firm NSO Group sells spyware to repressive governments that often use it to target activists, political opponents, and reporters.
In a new joint investigation, we uncovered new victims around the world.
This is the #PegasusProject. 1/
Danske Bank is OCCRP’s Corrupt Actor of the Year for 2018.
The bank has enabled the laundering of billions of dollars through Europe, allowing criminals and corrupt officials to park their ill-gotten proceeds around the world. occrp.org/en/poy/2018/
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The emails belong to Russian parliamentary staffer Sargis Mirzakhanian, who played a key role in the International Agency for Current Policy, which arranged payments to politicians in the EU parliament as well as in individual European countries.
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Sadovnikov had a long career with the Russian foreign ministry — but according to a Western intelligence agency, he was also “an actor of Russian parallel diplomacy” who was “accountable only to the head of state, with whom he claims a certain proximity.” 3/
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At the meeting with the Catalonians, Sadovnikov and his small entourage offered them 10,000 soldiers to help their independence bid. They also offered the astonishing sum of $500 billion.
In exchange, the Russian delegation had one request... 4/
NEW: The #Trump SoHo has been one of the US president’s most controversial deals. OCCRP/ reveal how apartments in the tower were bought with money connected to a multi-billion fraud case in the former Soviet republic of #Kazakhstan 💰. Read it here: occrp.org/en/28-ccwatch/
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This investigation into the #RussianOffer is a join effort between OCCRP, , , @irpinvestigates, and . 10/
BREAKING: Local media are reporting that Marian Kočner, a wealthy Slovak businessman, has been charged in connection with the murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová.
More to come. #justice4jan.
NEW: Andrew Tate — the self-described "king of masculinity" — and his brother have made many bombastic claims about their wealth.
Today, the OCCRP network can confirm one of them...
...they've done business with alleged members of a Romanian mafia group🇷🇴
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Kazakhstan’s President 🇰🇿
The family of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a man who is currently targeting the country’s entrenched oligarchy, had a Swiss bank account that held $1 million at its peak.
And that’s not the family’s only hidden fortune.
🏆 We have a winner 🏆
The 2021 Corrupt Person of the Year is…
🇧🇾 Aleksandr Lukashenko 🇧🇾
Learn why our judges selected the President of Belarus over the other four finalists.
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🇵🇰 Pakistan: An intelligence chief oversaw millions in CIA funding sent to arm Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviets.
But as the American money flowed, Credit Suisse accounts were opened under the names of the general’s sons. These accounts went on to hold millions.
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The Sons of an Azeri Despot 🇦🇿
Sons of Vasif Talibov, the tyrannical head of the autonomous Azeri exclave of Nakhchivan, received 100+ suspicious transactions that should have raised red flags at banks, like Credit Suisse, where they held accounts.
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But text messages obtained by OCCRP show that the Russians and Catalonians stayed in touch for months afterwards. Reps from each group exchanged 100s of texts:
➡️ Jordi Sardà Bonvehí, a businessman who translated for Sadovnikov
➡️ Victor Terradellas, а Puigdemont associate
6/
The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has asked for public comment on the implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act, a new law aimed at ending anonymous companies in the United States.
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The key German company, Riol Chemie GmBH, made more than 30 shipments to Russia’s Chimmed Group over three years.
Chimmed Group was contracted in 2016 by the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency widely believed to have been behind both attacks. 3/
Yevgeny Prigozhin ran the infamous “troll farm” and other pro-Putin media operations. One of his operatives came clean to reporters, sharing some of the dirty work he and his team did for the oligarch, including murder. Then he vanished.
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Sardà also kept promising money. At one point, he sent a photo of a suitcase of euros. Another time, he let Terradellas hold a deposit certificate showing the Russians were good for $500 billion. (Experts say it’s an obvious fake.) 8/
"Russian money is hugely important to Swiss banks… The majority of this profoundly undemocratic money was dirty but Switzerland had to bank the money or lose ground to Dubai, London..."
OCCRP's Drew Sullivan speaks at a hearing:
youtube.com/watch?v=dxX98X
Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan have few forests, and have never exported much wood to Europe.
That all changed after Russia invaded Ukraine — at least on paper.
Our story on how wood from Russia and Belarus makes its way to the EU in violation of sanctions.
occrp.org/en/investigati
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In one exchange, Sardà claimed that Vladimir Putin would meet with Puigdemont.
“The child” was a nickname of Puigdemont — while “the one on top of the bear” is a reference to a popular meme of the Russian president. 7/
The Azerbaijani #Laundromat: Exposed! A $2.9 billion slush fund benefiting President Ilham Aliyev's allies and more occrp.org/en/azerbaijani
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When journalists reported that the ex-mayor of Belgrade secretly purchased 24 apartments abroad, he denied it and offered to give them the flats if they could prove he bought them.
Well, our partner did just that. They’re waiting for the keys. 6/
Romanian authorities announced that Israeli billionaire Benjamin 'Beny' Steinmetz was arrested in Greece on November 24.
The mining magnate is wanted in Romania for his role in an allegedly corrupt land deal.
The world of finance went into alarm after the arrest of Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash.
Banks began to retroactively flag some of his suspicious transactions to the US gov’t — reports known as SARs, thousands of which make up the #FinCENFiles.
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At one point, a potential transfer of 56 bitcoins was discussed. But in the end, the Catalonians received just one bitcoin, worth under $10,000. Despite repeated requests, they’re not known to have received any more. 9/
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Oleg Deripaska purchased two properties in Cyprus in order to obtain citizenship in the EU country. He’s also connected to a UK company via his ex-wife.
➡️ Commercial real estate and a villa — Est. value $3.65M
➡️ Buro Global Limited — Est. value $10M
NEW INVESTIGATION: What do an Iranian state oil company, a fake Gambian bank, and the Italian mob have in common? Ties to a company called Formations House, hidden behind the doors of one of London’s most exclusive addresses. #29Leaks 1/
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The emails came from a Ukrainian hacktivist group and were obtained by journalists at 🇪🇪, who then shared them with OCCRP, 🇮🇹 and 🇦🇹.
NEW INVESTIGATION: An estate on Lake Windward. A mansion in Alpharetta. A condo in Atlanta. All abandoned.
With we found $3.7M in real estate belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarch Boris Rotenberg and his wife in the US state of Georgia
The invasion of Ukraine has brought the world's attention to a community that OCCRP has investigated for years: the Russian oligarchy.
These Putin allies have amassed massive levels of wealth — often at the expense of Russian citizens. Here are a few examples we've uncovered 👇
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Saving Mugabe 🇿🇼
Credit Suisse played a role in a $100m business deal that funded a wave of violence against the political opponents of Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe.
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Experts say it’s deeply troubling that Yashchyshyn, who’s been linked to a fraudulent charity and other dubious schemes, was able to gain access to Trump’s inner circle at Mar-a-Lago in May last year. 2/
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The assets they hold are worth at least $4.5B
These include the Black Sea palace famously investigated by , the Villa Sellgren, the Igora Hotel, and other properties previously tied to Putin — but not known, until now, to be interconnected. /4 cdn.occrp.org/projects/putin
🔴 The held a hearing yesterday about Switzerland’s key role in laundering Russian money and enabling Russian sanction evasion schemes.
OCCRP Publisher was invited to testify.
🍿 Watch here: youtube.com/watch?v=dxX98X
What happens when a developing country fights back and attempts to get Britain to return the money that it claims has been stolen?
's documentary Behind Closed Doors details how the U.K. has become a money launderer's paradise.
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A fugitive family 🇺🇦
The Guta family is wanted in Ukraine for siphoning $100m for a company it owned. Credit Suisse played a key role in this scam.
A Russian journalist tells his horrific story of what it was like to be detained in Belarus, and to spend a long night in one of Lukashenko’s detention centers. Not for the faint of heart.
"The best metaphor for Swiss banks I can come up with is as junkies hooked on dirty money and living with a government of enablers," our co-founder Drew Sullivan told .
Dive deep into the murky side of Swiss banking:
Four former executives of the Spanish branch of ICBC, China’s largest state-owned bank, pleaded guilty on Monday to laundering tens of millions of euros, most of which came from suspected Chinese organized criminal syndicates.
NEW: Luxembourg has been a haven for financial crime for decades.
Now, a corporate registry obtained by , and shared with OCCRP, reveals how global elites used companies in the tiny nation to operate in the shadows.
This is #OpenLux (thread):
NEW: Starting with a meeting the day before Trump’s inauguration, here’s the true story behind the "bromance" between President Trump and Turkey’s Erdoğan.
Starring: Trump’s top lobbyist, a Russian oligarch, a jailed shipping tycoon, and Lev Parnas. 1/
Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan have few forests, and have never exported much wood to Europe.
That all changed after Russia invaded Ukraine — at least on paper.
Our story on how wood from Russia and Belarus makes its way to the EU in violation of sanctions.
occrp.org/en/investigati
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The influence campaign had success stories in Italy 🇮🇹
For example, the region of Veneto was the first in the EU to pass a motion giving legitimacy to the annexation.
Leaked emails show it was drafted with the help of Mirzakhanian’s group.
NEW INVESTIGATION: OCCRP and a global partnership of over two dozen journalists unearthed new details about the August 4 explosion in Beirut, which killed 182 and injured over 6,000. #BeirutExplosion 1/
INTERPOL launched a new agency dedicated to transnational financial crime.
It's called the Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Center (IFCACC).
NEW: A leaked list of members of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing anti-government group, includes 300+ people who identified themselves as current or former employees of the US Dept of Homeland Security and affiliated agencies.
Our story w/ 1/
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In one email, Mirzakhanian referred to the money dedicated to influencing politicians from 🇮🇹 Italy and 🇦🇹Austria as the “price of the vote”after both politicians had tabled resolutions in their respective legislatures against Russian sanctions over Crimea.
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This investigation was done in partnership with and is being republished today by a number of our int'l partners.
It’s part of our #RussianAssetTracker project, which is working to uncover illicit and corrupt Russian wealth around the world.
"To really hit Putin and his friends where it hurts, one must go to Switzerland, to Panama, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands."
Our partners from explain the critical role secretive jurisdictions play in hiding illicit wealth.
"A nonprofit reporting network launched Monday the Russian Asset Tracker, a database to track the assets of prominent Russians who have links to Vladimir Putin."
reports on #RussianAssetTracker
edition.cnn.com/2022/03/21/bus
Roman is one of the top journalists in Russia, if not the world. He has led numerous ground-breaking investigations into organized crime and corruption in Putin’s Russia. He was a 2019 fellow and won last year’s Trailblazer Award. 5/
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Alisher Usmanov, an Uzbek-Russian billionaire, is connected to several assets throughout the UK and Europe. Here are just 3 of them.
➡️ Property on the Croatian coast — Est. value $5.6M
➡️ 2 large brick mansions near Hampstead Heath — Est. value $59.4M
TOMORROW: Putin’s childhood friends... Their global business empires... And the schemes that helped them dodge Western sanctions.
50,000+ leaked records expose how two of Russia’s most prominent oligarchs have hid their global wealth for years.
#RotenbergFiles
NEW: Last year, Oliver Stone starred in a documentary in which he interviewed Kazakhstan’s former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
As it turns out, a charitable foundation controlled by Nazarbayev secretly paid at least $5M for the film.
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Corporate records obtained by OCCRP also reveal shared personnel: a former managing director of Riol Chemie used to be co-owner of the same Chimmed subsidiary that received the shipments, while a current managing director was previously a director there. 4/
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Following the attempted murder of Navalny in 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security imposed export restrictions on both firms, though these restrictions have not been adopted by Germany or the European Union. 6/
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According to experts, the substances were not shipped in sufficient quantities to have been used directly in a chemical or biological weapons program. But they could have been used in starting domestic production, with small amounts serving as a ‘reference substance’. 7/
NEW: Dubai has long been known as a playground for the rich. Now a new data leak shows that the emirate’s real estate has drawn another clientele: sanctioned politicians, criminals, and dodgy officials from Russia and the EU. This is #DubaiUncovered 1/5
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They ostensibly operate in different areas — but many of them share directors and shareholders.
Tying them together is a mysterious email domain: LLCInvest.ru. It’s operated by an IT firm close to Bank Rossiya, a sanctioned lender widely known as “Putin’s bank.” /2
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🇨🇾 The group won a larger victory in Cyprus, where in 2016 a motion passed that, amongst other things, called for removing EU sanctions against individual Russians.
Emails show that the Russian group drafted the motion w/ the Cypriot politicians who presented it to parliament.
Italian police arrested over 100 people suspected of having affiliation with the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s largest mafia group.
The operation focused on the Molè clan, one of the oldest and most powerful families in the ‘Ndrangheta.
🇦🇿 NEW: The family that ruled Nakhchivan — aka “Azerbaijan’s North Korea” — appears to have secretly controlled lucrative assets in Georgia by hiding behind a frontman.
Our investigation with 🇬🇪
