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Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
@OCCRP
Feb 17, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
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…

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More from @OCCRP

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Mar 21
Scam call centers use a secret industry of shadowy service providers that used shell companies, proxy account holders, and sham paperwork to move victims’ funds through accounts at major commercial banks — and into their hands occrp.org/en/project/sca…
Scammers convinced at least 32,000 people worldwide to “invest” $275 million in fake opportunities. They instructed victims to use digital banks like Chase, Revolut, & Wise — and tapped a vast network of unlicensed payment services to forge fake paperwork & dodge bank scrutiny.
One of them, a British tradesman we’ll call “Mark,” was led to believe he was making investments in cryptocurrency and clean energy. A call-center scammer convinced him to open a new digital Chase account and send £7000.

To get help moving the money, the call center opened up the chat app Telegram and messaged a service provider called “Bankio,” which provided bank account info to scammers on demand.
Read 10 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Feb 20
As Secretary General of the @oscepa, Roberto Montella observed last year’s pivotal election in Georgia and took part in a closed-door meeting on the wording of the OSCE’s post-election report.

⚽️But just weeks earlier, he had flown to Tbilisi to attend a football match organized by a top ruling party official occrp.org/en/scoop/osce-…Image
Montella, himself a former football player, travelled to Tbilisi in September 2024 with veteran members of a hometown club, AC Milan, who were set to play a friendly match against a Georgian team.

The local organizer of the event, former AC Milan player Kakha Kaladze, was an old friend.Image
But since leaving football, Kaladze has pursued a stellar career with the country's ruling party Georgian Dream — which had cracked down on civil society, media, and the political opposition amid mass protests.

He is now one of the party’s top figures, and the mayor of Tbilisi.
Read 8 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Feb 14
NEW: After being sanctioned by the US last year, Georgia’s richest man and honorary chair of its ruling party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, moved his assets home. Experts say the effect is to “transfer the risk from himself and his own wealth to the country of Georgia.” occrp.org/en/scoop/slapp…Image
Many of Ivanishvili’s assets were transferred on a single day, January 17, including a firm with construction rights on 12,000 square meters of land within a state-owned national park, @OCCRP, @ifactgeorgia and @georgia_gmc found occrp.org/en/scoop/slapp…
@ifactgeorgia @georgia_gmc Among the transferred assets, reporters found, is a previously-unknown residence in the spa town of Abastumani. It’s got a spa, swimming pool, Turkish bath, rooftop orangery, and basketball court.
Read 4 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Jan 28
NEW: A Cypriot company ultimately owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich set up a fake superyacht rental business in an apparent attempt to dodge millions of euros in tax, leaked emails show.

Here’s what we found with @TBIJ and @BBCNews 👇

occrp.org/en/project/cyp…
Between 1999-2010, Abramovich assembled a $1.2 billion fleet of superyachts.

But operating superyachts is expensive, and in the EU, value-added tax must be paid on everything needed to keep them in service…

… unless they were used for commercial purposes.

(Pixsell/Alamy) Image
In 2005, people working for Abramovich set up a complex scheme via Cypriot company Blue Ocean Yacht Management renting the superyachts to customers.

In reality, the “customers” hiring the yachts were companies owned by an offshore trust — ultimately benefitting Abramovich. Image
Read 6 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Jan 15
🇰🇪Kenya has an abduction problem.

Since anti-government protests in June, at least 82 people have been kidnapped; 29 are still missing. Some have been found dead.

One kidnapping victim, activist Bob Njagi, was snatched from a public bus in August. ⤵️
occrp.org/en/news/the-co…
Njagi was dragged into a vehicle by four hooded men, tortured, and taken to a building where he remained in a room alone. He was fed once a day.

Over a month after his abduction, Njagi was dropped on the side of the road. He had no idea where he was, but eventually got home.
Njagi said he believes the number of people kidnapped is much higher than reported.

The disappearances appear to follow a similar pattern and target people who have been critical of Kenyan President William Ruto's government. Image
Read 5 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Jan 14
NEW: The fugitive alleged boss of a Philippine human trafficking and cyberfraud operation purchased Cyprus citizenship and stashed 2 million euros in a real estate firm there, reporters have discovered.

Our scoop with @TheCIReN and @rapplerdotcom 👇 Image credit: Joann Manabat/Rappler
Philippine authorities have charged Huang Zhiyang with human trafficking, sued him for alleged money laundering, and frozen at least five of his bank accounts.

But before he was a suspect, Huang obtained citizenship in Cyprus by investing 2 million euros in a real estate firm. Presidential anti-corruption officers in the Philippines showed several of Huang Zhiyang’s passports following a raid on his villa. Photo credit: Joann Manabat/Rappler
Philippine officials said they were unaware of Huang’s Cypriot funds until reporters informed them.

Authorities have no immediate plans to pursue the funds.
Read 5 tweets

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