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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
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
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Dec 27, 2024
Less than two months before Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell, Syrian intelligence was busy spying. Its work included targeting journalists and their families.

Exclusive documents shared with our partner @SIRAJ_SYRIA show how Assad’s secret service targeted journalists. Photo credit: IMAGESLIVE/Alamy Stock Photo
Discovered at General Intelligence Directorate (GID) headquarters after rebel groups took power on Dec. 8, the documents reveal the Assad regime’s paranoia about independent media.

Journalists exposing corruption were framed as spies. The General Intelligence Directorate in Damascus, Syria. Photo credit: Ali Ibrahim/SIRAJ
One story that rattled Assad’s GID?

An investigation by SIRAJ and OCCRP that traced the supply chain sending European trucks to Syria despite sanctions, uncovering how loopholes let Volvo, Scania, and Mercedes trucks enter the country.

occrp.org/en/investigati…
Read 5 tweets
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project Profile picture
Dec 23, 2024
NEW: In Honiara, Solomon Islands, clean water is a luxury. Where floods bring disease, children bathe in polluted rivers and bottled water costs half a day’s wages.

A $20M @ABD_HQ plant funded in 2019 was supposed to help, but not a single drop of concrete has yet been poured.👇Discarded plastic water bottles line the shore of the Mataniko river in Honiara. Photo Credit: Charlie Piringi/In-depth Solomons.
The Kongulai Water Plant was meant to deliver 15M liters of clean water daily.

But from day one, the project seemed damned: lowball bids, blacklisted contractors, and political interference.

Here’s what went wrong. Solomon Water’s plan to expand and upgrade its clean water services in Honiara. Credit: Edin Pašović, OCCRP/Solomon Water
Solomon Water, the state utility, expressed concerns to @ABD_HQ about accepting the lowest bid, from an Indian joint venture whose bid numbers didn’t seem to add up.

Sources told OCCRP that @ADB_HQ awarded the contract anyway.
Read 8 tweets

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