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Mar 18 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Leaked documents confirm ties between SCL, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, and passport-sales firm #HenleyandPartners.

An ex-SCL operative says SCL and Henley had a secret quid-pro-quo during a 2009 election in St. Kitts and Nevis. 1/
occrp.org/en/investigati…
Strategic Communications Lab (SCL) has been involved in electoral efforts in dozens of countries — including St. Kitts and Nevis, where it oversaw the election campaign of Denzil Douglas.

Who was paying SCL for its consultancy was a bit of a mystery at the time. 2/
In 2018, a British parliamentary report revealed claims that the secret financier of Douglas’s winning campaign was Christian Kälin, the chairman of Henley & Partners, which managed St. Kitts and Nevis’s “citizenship-by-investment” program. 3/
Henley & Partners and Kälin have denied having a secret relationship with SCL.

Today’s investigation shows these denials to be false. 4/
Leaked documents obtained by OCCRP show that Henley did enter into at least three agreements with SCL or its affiliated companies.

The agreements aimed to help each other find potential clients, often for a commission. 5/
This is our latest story on Henley & Partners. This one details how Kälin and his business partner may have benefited from an economic development fund that was financed by St. Kitts and Nevis’s passport scheme. 6/
occrp.org/en/investigati…

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More from @OCCRP

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Mar 18
NEW: OCCRP and @daphnefdtn have uncovered another potential scandal involving Henley & Partners, a firm that specializes in “citizenship-by-investment” programs.

This one concerns Henley’s chairman, his associate, and St. Kitts and Nevis 🇰🇳 1/ occrp.org/en/investigati…
St. Kitts and Nevis hired Henley in 2006 to set up a program that allowed foreigners who paid at least $250,000 into an economic development fund known as the SIDF to obtain a passport.

The SIDF, we reveal, went on to invest in a business linked to Henley’s chairman. 2/ Image
Henley’s chairman Christian Kälin, aka the Passport King, and his business partner secured a ~$1.2m investment from SIDF, which purchased shares in their firm ASW Capital.

(Side note: ASW was once owned by Harvey Weinstein) 3/ Image
Read 8 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Mar 14
NEW: Scandal-hit banker Álvaro Sobrinho is linked to a scheme to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from a social housing project in Angola.

Around the same time Sobrinho set up three Credit Suisse accounts. #SuisseSecrets
occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…
Sobrinho gained notoriety in 2014 when Banco Espirito Santo Angola, where he was CEO, was dismantled with billions in debts.

This story reveals BESA’s ties to a scheme that allegedly embezzled from a project to build 1M affordable homes in Angola. 2/ cdn.occrp.org/projects/suiss…
Documents obtained by OCCRP show at least eleven of Sobrinho’s accounts at Credit Suisse are now being investigated by Portuguese prosecutors over the scandal.

One of these held at least 78 million Swiss francs, and three were set up at the time of the alleged scam. 3/
Read 5 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Mar 9
NEW: New analysis of leaked bank data reveals almost $2B worth of suspicious payments by companies linked to Swiss mining giant Solway, which were made through Estonian accounts with Swedbank and Danske Bank. 1/
occrp.org/en/investigati…
Reporters identified close to two dozen firms that made 1,000+ suspect transfers between 2007 and 2015. All were affiliated with Solway or its executives in corporate records, investigations, or media reports. 2/ Image
Swedbank dropped Solway in 2011 over concerns about “questionable transactions.” But the lender wasn’t alone in its concerns: Other banks flagged several of the 23 companies to U.S. regulators over suspicious payments. 3/
Read 5 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Mar 9
NEW: Using records from both the #SuisseSecrets and #PandoraPapers leak, OCCRP exposes the hidden ties between a top Uzbek official and one of the country’s wealthiest, most secretive oligarchs. 1/ occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…
Leaked banking data from inside Credit Suisse shows how Payzullajon Mirzaev, co-founder of industrial conglomerate Orient Group, had control over an account at the scandal-ridden Swiss lender that belonged to a previously unknown Uzbek woman, Rana Ramatova. 2/
Our reporting reveals that Ramatova, whose name has never emerged in public, is in fact the wife of Uzbekistan’s first deputy prime minister, Achilbay Ramatov. 3/
Read 6 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Mar 7
Leaked documents reveal executives at the Fénix mine in east Guatemala, owned by Switzerland’s Solway, have long hidden evidence that it was leaching contaminated water into neighboring Lake Izabal.

This is #MiningSecrets, a project led by @FbdnStories occrp.org/en/investigati…
In 2017, a strange red slick started spreading across Lake Izabal, provoking protests that were violently repressed by police.

Solway denied its mine was responsible, blaming a bloom of algae. But internal docs show executives knew red-colored water was spilling from the site. ImageImage
Guatemala’s environment minister publicly backed Solway’s denials.

But docs in the leak show gov't monitors were also warning about the red water from the mine. One 2017 audit found water near the site was contaminated with so much nickel that it breached World Bank standards. Image
Read 6 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Mar 2
NEW: Several wealthy Pakistanis stashed as much as $200 million in secret Credit Suisse accounts while they were under scrutiny from tax officials or corruption investigators. #SuisseSecrets
occrp.org/en/suisse-secr…
In 2000, Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) launched an anti-corruption drive that targeted 200 military officers, politicians, and business people.

10 ppl from that list had Credit Suisse accounts.
One of the Pakistanis in the leak is former Lt. Gen. Zahid Ali Akbar Khan, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to having unexplained assets & paid a $2M fine.

But what NAB didn't know — until now — is that he had 15.5m Swiss francs in his Credit Suisse account. cdn.occrp.org/projects/suiss…
Read 4 tweets

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