We’ve launched a page about unexplained wealth.

Criminals and corrupt officials from around the world love to park their ill-gotten gains in the West. It’s one of the main ways the global financial system enables wrongdoing.

We’ll track it here. 1/
occrp.org/en/what-is-une…
This explainer provides a snapshot of how the UK’s 'unexplained wealth orders' — a major investigative tool against illicit foreign wealth — have functioned since their introduction 3 years ago.

The short answer is: It’s complicated. 2/
occrp.org/en/what-is-une…
On this page, we’re also highlighting some of our recent stories about unexplained wealth. Here are a few of them 👇 3/
Here's how the son of a top Russian Railways official acquired a real estate empire across Europe. The virtually unknown Sergei Toni was just 15 when the first property was purchased.

This points to the technique of using family members as proxies. 4/
occrp.org/en/openlux/son…
Gabon's ruling Bongo family and members of their inner circle — including a judge who has been instrumental in helping them hang on to power — have acquired property worth millions near Washington DC. 5/ occrp.org/en/investigati…
How the son of an Azerbaijani official acquired an elite London apartment — with the apparent help of a mysterious shell company and a Turkish business tycoon. This story lays bare the mechanics behind some of these complex deals. 6/ occrp.org/en/investigati…
Lots more on our Unexplained Wealth page — which will be updated as new cases inevitably emerge.
occrp.org/en/what-is-une…

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More from @OCCRP

29 Apr
NEW: Argentina’s former first family, the Macris, made a secret deal with a disgraced Austrian bank. The deal helped the bank manipulate other creditors in an infamous postal service bankruptcy case.

Our investigation with @LANACION 🇦🇷 1/
occrp.org/en/investigati…
The Macris acquired Correo Argentino, the state postal service, before leading it into receivership. A previously hidden audit of Meinl bank shows how the Macri patriarch, Franco, later secretly gave Meinl control of Correo’s debts in a deal that raised suspicions in Austria. 2/
While the Macris were negotiating with creditors, the audit shows, the ties between them and Meinl were multiplying.

Once the secret deal was struck, Meinl started to make decisions that seemed to favor the Macris ahead of itself. 3/
Read 6 tweets
28 Apr
NEW: As part of an effort to uncover the truth behind the murder of Mexican journalist #ReginaMartinez — who was killed on this day 9 yrs ago — OCCRP is releasing 1000s of records related to the investigation.

Here’s a look at what we’ve made public 👇 1/
occrp.org/en/investigati…
Reporters obtained these docs via #FOIA requests in 2020 as part of the #CartelProject, an award-winning investigation led by @FbdnStories.

What they found raised serious questions about the official narrative claiming that Martínez's murder was unrelated to her reporting. 2/
Pages 1 to 820:

➡️ Forensic analysis
➡️ Notes relating to the official “crime of passion” narrative that we discredited. 3/ Image
Read 6 tweets
27 Apr
NEW: With Reza Zarrab expected to testify in a US court for helping Iran evade sanctions, we show how the money launderer was just a cog in a larger scheme involving the Turkish gov’t and transactions with major global banks. #WhoBankedForIran 1/
occrp.org/en/how-iran-us…
Who is Reza Zarrab? The money launderer will be a key witness in the US prosecution of Turkish state-owned Halkbank, which is accused of knowingly facilitating Zarrab’s sanction-busting scheme in the 2010s.

More on Zarrab here: 2/
occrp.org/en/how-iran-us…
Zarrab and Halkbank didn’t act on their own.

Testimony from Zarrab and an exclusive interview with his ex-deputy indicate that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was behind the sanction-busting scheme.

More on that here: 3/
occrp.org/en/the-fincen-…
Read 12 tweets
14 Apr
🏆 Our #TroikaLaundromat and #FraudFactory investigations won #IJ4EU Impact Awards!
#FraudFactory uncovered an international scam that used Facebook ads and an army of multilingual salespeople to defraud people around the world out of millions of dollars. Many of the victims have been left in financial ruin. occrp.org/en/fraud-facto…
#TroikaLaundromat revealed an $8.8 billion network of offshore companies that allowed corrupt politicians and criminals to launder money. occrp.org/en/troikalaund…
Read 5 tweets
12 Apr
NEW: We've translated a story Roman Anin and our Russian partner, @istories_media, published in March. It shows that a senior newly-appointed FSB official has ties to figures in organized crime.

Roman's apartment was raided by the FSB on Friday night. 1/
occrp.org/en/investigati…
The official at the center of this investigation is Sergei Korolev, who Vladimir Putin appointed to be the FSB’s first deputy director.

Here’s what Roman and @istories_media found 👇2/
➡️ 2004: St. Petersburg police found that Korolev, who then worked in the FSB’s economic division, had close contact with Oleg Makovoz, an organized criminal figure later sentenced to 23 yrs for kidnapping, extortion, and murder. 3/
Read 10 tweets
9 Apr
🚨 BREAKING: The Moscow apartment of Roman Anin, editor-in-chief of OCCRP member center @istories_media, is currently being raided by the FSB. /1
@istories_media Roman’s colleagues are currently unable to reach him.

The last thing they heard from him, before he went silent, is that the FSB search may be related to a 2016 story he published in Novaya Gazeta, his previous employer. /2
@istories_media That story concerned Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now the head of the state-controlled oil giant Rosneft. It connected Sechin with an ultra-luxurious mega-yacht, the St. Princess Olga.

Here’s OCCRP’s English version of that story. 3/

occrp.org/en/investigati…
Read 8 tweets

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