Thread by @OCCRP

NEW: A reputation management firm called Eliminia has helped drug traffickers, fraudsters, and other criminal actors bury online reports of their crimes via intimidation and search engine manipulation, leaked documents show.
#StoryKillers occrp.org/en/storykiller…

2. Among the firm’s customers are:

💰 Convicted drug traffickers José Mestre Fernandez and José Nogueira García

💰 Russian-Georgian mafia money launderer Malchas Tetruashvili

💰 Italian firm Area S.p.A – fined for illegally sending equipment to the Syrian government

3. Eliminalia buried articles on clients’ misdeeds by manipulating search engines with fake news.

After Area S.p.A hired Eliminalia, articles flooded the internet on everything from K-Pop to blockchain mentioning the firm’s name, drowning out legitimate news reports.

4. Eliminalia also deployed intimidation tactics against journalists - including the OCCRP.

In 2019, editors received an email from an official-sounding email claiming an investigation violated EU privacy law. Eliminalia used the same domain to send legal threats to others.

5. Eliminalia’s official owner is Diego “Didac” Giménez Sanchez, a 30-year-old who described himself as a self-made businessman espousing the “right to be forgotten” online.

He is linked to over 50 companies - including business partnerships with his own criminal clients.

6. Sanchez also owns shares in multiple surrogacy businesses in Ukraine, along with a man convicted of sexually abusing Sánchez as a child.

These firms are accused of falsifying documents to smuggle babies out of Ukraine, and trading children for profit.
occrp.org/en/storykiller…