NEW: Fiji-based entrepreneur Zhao Fugang's promotion of China’s interests on the Pacific island isn’t any secret — he runs an official “service center” for Chinese citizens inside a hotel he owns — but Australian authorities say he is hiding something:

occrp.org/en/investigati… Australian intel + police agencies say Zhao is more than a businessman or political operative.

They suspect he is a senior organized crime figure — and are pushing Fiji to move against him.

Fugang, who denies wrongdoing, has not been charged w/a crime.

“Is this a prank?”
“What donation?”
“I work in a school, I barely survive.”

After journalists at our partner @CivilNetTV found unusual patterns in donation data reported by Armenia’s ruling party, they started calling listed donors to find the truth ⬇️
occrp.org/en/investigati…
Half of the 31 donors reached for comment denied making contributions.

Others refused to answer or said they couldn’t remember if they gave or not.

Multiple OCCRP investigations have revealed U.S. real estate purchases made by politically exposed individuals, often with cash ⤵️

https://twitter.com/transparencyUSA/status/1755653334852399239

In 2022 an @IllicitFlows report said U.S. real estate is the No. 1 destination for laundered dirty money.

At least $2.3 billion was laundered over the past five years through U.S. real estate, the report said.

occrp.org/en/daily/14991…

NEW: Software giant SAP agreed to pay at least $220 million to settle bribery charges filed by the U.S. SEC after its investigations w/the Dept. of Justice.

SAP allegedly used third-party intermediaries to bribe government officials in 7 countries.

occrp.org/en/daily/18389… The SEC said that an employee of SAP Azerbaijan, a subsidiary, gave gifts worth around $3,000 to employees at state-owned oil giant SOCAR to help ensure SAP was awarded a $1.6 million contract.

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan continue their chilling campaign against independent journalists.

11 reporters from OCCRP partner TemirovLive remain in a 48-hour pre-trial detention today.

Their homes & offices were all searched Tuesday.

An update on the deleterious situation: 👇 The @UNHumanRights Office of the High Commissioner expressed concern late Tuesday, noting that authorities in Kyrgyzstan searched the premises of several independent media outlets this week and detained at least 14 journalists.

ohchr.org/en/statements/…

‼️ Kyrgyz police have detained multiple current and former journalists from @TemirovLive, an OCCRP partner. They have also searched their apartments. The authorities speak of incitement to riots — an absurd claim. occrp.org/en/daily/18365… Bolot Temirov and his colleagues have collaborated with OCCRP on several investigations. Some of the arrested journalists are currently working on more stories with us. They are independent professionals who serve the Kyrgyz public.

NEW: Our 2023 Corrupt Person of the Year isn’t a domineering dictator — she’s one of the many dry bureaucrats helping to derail democracy.

Step forward María Consuelo Porras, Guatemala’s attorney general and protector of the political elite. Porras is overseeing efforts to prevent president-elect Bernardo Arévalo from taking office after he won the election in August.

Her efforts — including suspending Arévalo’s political party — have sparked protests and helped throw Guatemala into a political crisis.

NEW: When Moscow needs gunpowder — the explosive powering its relentless artillery fire in Ukraine — it relies on two Central Asian neighbors that have ramped up exports of a key ingredient: cotton pulp.
occrp.org/en/investigati… Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan have taken a neutral stance on the war in Ukraine while continuing to maintain long-standing diplomatic & economic ties with Moscow.

Each has increased exports of cotton pulp, a key ingredient in gunpowder, to Russia since the 2022 invasion.

NEW: A glitzy resort built on what was once a sleepy stretch of Cypriot coast housing endangered monk seals was partially financed by companies co-owned by two Russians connected to the notorious Magnitsky Affair tax fraud.

#CyprusConfidential 👇

occrp.org/en/cyprus-conf… The village of Pegeia is now home to Cap St Georges luxury hotel and hundreds of expensive beachfront villas.

One is reportedly owned by Shakira.

The investment behind the resort’s origins are complex and murky, with opaque offshore firms obscuring who was behind the project.

Editors often tell journalists not to become part of the story they’re covering.

But the Palestinian reporters in Gaza have no choice.

And if death is their fate, there’s only one desire: for it to be swift, instantaneous.

A 🧵
occrp.org/en/investigati… By December 11, the Committee to Protect Journalists, @pressfreedom, had confirmed the deaths of 63 journalists and media workers since October 7, when Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel.

The actual figure could be higher.

NEW: Leaked documents finally reveal the identity of the owner of an offshore company that transferred 780,000 euros to one of the assassins of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanić — just three weeks before his murder.

A #CyprusConfidential investigation:

occrp.org/en/cyprus-conf… Pukanić was killed in 2008 when a motorbike packed with explosives detonated next to his car outside the magazine he co-founded.

He had many enemies, having produced major investigative stories about powerful figures in several Balkan countries.

occrp.org/en/investigati…

NEW: Millions of leaked documents offer unprecedented insight into how accountants, bankers, auditors, and lawyers in Cyprus have catered to the rich and powerful — especially Russian oligarchs.

Welcome to #CyprusConfidential

occrp.org/en/cyprus-conf… The leaked documents reveal how the Cyprus wing of the auditing giant @PwC hurried to restructure companies belonging to Russian oligarchs as the prospect of EU, U.S., and U.K. sanctions resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grew more likely.

occrp.org/en/cyprus-conf…

NEW: Modern drug traffickers aren’t just moving cocaine.

They’re reshaping its journey.

#NarcoFiles: The New Criminal Order takes you inside the borderless business of organized crime.occrp.org/en/narcofiles-… Reporters show how cocaine production is increasingly spreading out of its traditional heartland in the Andes and into Central America, with coca cultivation rising in Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras.

NEW #DictatorsBank: When the regional development bank #CABEI approved a $24.4 million loan for the Agua Zarca dam, it set in motion a project that would end in tragedy, culminating in the death of indigenous activist Berta Cáceres.

occrp.org/en/the-dictato… Internal documents obtained by OCCRP and @columbiajourn reveal that CABEI ignored multiple red flags before signing off on its loan to the company developing the dam, DESA, which was co-owned by one of the most powerful families in Honduras.

NEW: An investigative project by OCCRP & 10 partners found that Central America’s main regional development bank #CABEI has bankrolled projects that have enabled waste and corruption in one of the most unequal regions on Earth.👇

occrp.org/en/the-dictato… #CABEI has channeled billions of dollars into its founding states: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica.

CABEI says it accounts for nearly half of development finance in Central America. Critics say it acts as a lifeline for the region’s authoritarian leaders.

🏆 The winner of the #DaphneCaruanaGalizia Prize for Journalism will be announced soon — and multiple OCCRP projects are nominated.

📰 From Amazon deforestation to the Kremlin cash in Europe, here are some stories in the running for this year’s prize:

daphnejournalismprize.eu/finalists-2023 The #RotenbergFiles project with @IStories_eng exposed how two of Putin’s childhood friends-turned-billionaires dodged Western sanctions for nearly a decade.

50,000 leaked papers revealed how the Rotenbergs preserved assets thanks to Western enablers:

occrp.org/en/rotenberg-f…

1/ NEW INVESTIGATION: OCCRP and partners at @riseprojectro and @maltatoday traced the roots of a deadly brawl in Malta to a prostitution ring and Romania’s criminal underworld. occrp.org/en/investigati… 2/ A Dec 2022 brawl btw two groups of Romanian men outside a popular beachside bar in a Maltese neighborhood known for booze, drugs, and strip clubs left one man dead. He was stabbed 28 times.

Three of the men in the fight were arrested for murder: two brothers and their cousin.

Between 2007 - 2022, nearly a dozen people who were later pursued by authorities in their countries of origin purchased citizenship from the Caribbean island nation of Dominica.

Some of them are still on the run today 👇

occrp.org/en/dominica-pa… 🇯🇴 A Jordanian man named Mutasem Faouri and his father Fayez were arrested in 2012 for abusing their positions at a financial services firm.

Both were convicted, but only Fayez went to prison.

Mutasem went missing.

NEW in #PassportsoftheCaribbean: Dominica’s government says its citizenship-by-investment program — one of the world’s biggest —netted the Caribbean island state $1.2 billion between 2017-2020 alone.

But there appears to be a math problem 👇

occrp.org/en/dominica-pa… OCCRP and partners obtained copies of Dominica’s national gazettes. They span the years 2007 to 2022 and list roughly 7,700 people who have purchased citizenship.

Dominica: Passports of the Caribbean details our investigation of the names. occrp.org/en/dominica-pa…

Our Ukrainian partner @Slidstvo_info is under attack.

A SLAPP lawsuit has been filed against its editorial team in Ukraine by a man alleged to be a proxy in a suspected money laundering case that Slidstvo, OCCRP and others published stories about in May.

slidstvo.info/english-storie… @Slidstvo_info reports that the legal team of the plaintiff, Sergei Semeniuk, attempted to manipulate the electronic judge distribution system, which automatically assigns judges.

His lawyer twice submitted the lawsuit but withdrew it after a judge was automatically assigned.

🚨🌍🔍 In about 24 hours, we will unveil an untold tale of two fraudsters on a worldwide grifting odyssey.

The scale will surprise you. 💰 These two Chinese fraudsters used the @NASA brand to sell a sham miracle cure and used $$ to infiltrate senior levels of the @UN.