Days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Belarusian government sold a plot of land in an exclusive Russian ski resort town for 20 times cheaper than its market value.

Now an elite ‘hotel complex’ is being built on that land — but not just for anyone. The development includes VIP villas and Turkish spas, as well as high-security features like guard posts and a drone suppression system.

It may be intended for Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

occrp.org/en/investigati…

🌎Here's this week's round-the-world roundup of OCCRP's biggest stories and scoops Newly obtained documents reveal the people and companies who paid for the elite development near the Russian resort city of Sochi. Many have ties to Viktor Sheiman, a regime enforcer often described as Belarusian Dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s “right hand" occrp.org/en/investigati…

This plot of land near the Russian resort town of Sochi used to belong to the Belarusian government.

Now there’s an elite development being built there. What’s going on? These documents show how Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko ordered the land to be sold to a Russian company — for 5% of its market value.

On September 28, World News Day unites newsrooms worldwide to showcase the power of fact-based reporting amid rising authoritarianism, misinformation, and Big Tech dominance. #WND2025 What would your feed look like without fact-based journalism?

Canada is trying to deport Jimmy DeMaria, allegedly a senior figure in the "Siderno Group,” which authorities say is a Toronto-based branch of Italy’s ’Ndrangheta mafia. As @CBC reports, the case hinges on foreign wiretaps — raising questions about foreign interference and constitutional rights in Canada. cbc.ca/news/politics/… @CBC cites two OCCRP reports about the Siderno Group, including our 2024 deep dive, in collaboratiion with the @TorontoStar, into how Italy’s ’Ndrangheta mafia allegedly used personal ties inside two major Canadian banks: ​​occrp.org/en/investigati…

Canada is trying to deport Jimmy DeMaria, allegedly a senior figure in the "Siderno Group,” which authorities say is a Toronto-based branch of Italy’s ’Ndrangheta mafia. As @CBC reports, the case hinges on foreign wiretaps — raising questions about foreign interference and constitutional rights in Canada: cbc.ca/news/politics/… @CBC cites two OCCRP reports about the Siderno Group, including our 2024 deep dive, in collaboratiion with the Toronto Star, into how Italy’s ’Ndrangheta mafia allegedly used personal ties inside two major Canadian banks: ​​occrp.org/en/investigati…

NEW: The Telegram messaging app has a reputation for security — but @istories_media found that its technical infrastructure is run by a man whose companies closely collaborate with Russian intelligence services.

Meet Vladimir Vedeneev 👇 Vedeneev founded GlobalNet, a Russian telecoms giant that controls infrastructure from Siberia to Western Europe. Its clients include:

🌐 A secretive Russian special service which helped plan the war in Ukraine
🌐 A Russian state-owned nuclear research lab
🌐 …and, until 2020, Telegram.

🚗🥤What could go wrong on a summer road trip through the Balkans?

You're with your family, crossing a border — and suddenly you find you’ve been flagged by Interpol as an internationally wanted criminal.

That's what happened to Đurađ Trivunović, an ordinary citizen who had his identity stolen by a convicted drug trafficker belonging to the notorious Škaljari clan. He wasn’t alone.

An investigation by @CINbih reveals that at least 60 members of powerful organized crime groups in the Balkans obtained Bosnian passports under false identities between 2013 and 2022 occrp.org/en/investigati…

Frederik Obermaier @f_obermaier, co-founder of @paper_trail_m, has spent years investigating financial crime. As a result he doesn’t travel to Switzerland anymore. What’s the connection here? “I do not want to risk being questioned by police … about my sources,” Frederik says. Under Switzerland’s draconian banking secrecy law — specifically, Article 47 of the Swiss Banking Act — even revealing that someone holds an account with a Swiss bank can lead to up to five years in prison. Sharing that truth with the public? A felony.

NEW: The UK has just sanctioned “Evrasia,” a Russian NGO that interfered in Moldova's elections with cold hard cash.

Run on behalf of Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, it’s also building an anti-Western propaganda machine.

We've reported on the organization and how it works.👇 Our investigation, based on reporting by a Moldovan partner, @cu_sens, shows that Evrazia is at once a propaganda vehicle, a conduit for illegal financial flows, and an election interference instrument: occrp.org/en/feature/a-r…

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.

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-… 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.

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… 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…

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)

🇰🇪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.

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 👇 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.

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. 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.

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.👇 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.

NEW: A grandson of Tajikistan’s president purchased a luxury Dubai property when he was just 9 years old, leaked real estate records show.

But where did the money come from?

Now 18-years-old, Erajjon Gulov’s three-bedroom apartment is valued at $1.3 million. 🧵 Under UAE law, children between the ages of 7 and 18 can buy property with the approval of a legal guardian.

Back in 2015, Gulov’s mother and presidential daughter Parvina Rahmonova had no known source of income.

His father earned a presumably modest salary as a civil servant.

Romania’s constitutional court annulled first-round presidential election results amid allegations of Russian meddling that helped far-right candidate Calin Georgescu emerge as a surprise frontrunner.

The court has ordered the election process to restart.
occrp.org/en/news/romani… The decision follows findings from the country's intelligence service that Russia influenced the vote through a coordinated social media campaign.
occrp.org/en/news/romani…

NEW: An international money-laundering ring run from Moscow & Dubai has been moving billions in crypto and cash for criminal operations, @NCA_UK says.

84 people have been arrested as part of “Operation Destabilise,” involving police from the U.K., Ireland, the U.S. & France. Several alleged key figures in the ring had “multiple links to the Russian financial sector,” the NCA said.

Some were sanctioned by the U.S. today, including Georgy Rossi, founder of the TGR group of companies, one of two “criminal enterprises” allegedly running the network.