About Us

OCCRP is one of the largest investigative journalism organizations in the world, with staff across six continents and hubs in Amsterdam, Washington, D.C., and Sarajevo. We are a mission-driven nonprofit newsroom that partners with other media outlets to publish stories that lead to real-world action. At the same time, our media development arm helps investigative outlets around the world succeed and serve the public.

Founded by veteran investigative reporters Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu in 2007, OCCRP began in Eastern Europe with a handful of partners and has grown into a  major force in collaborative investigative journalism, upholding the highest standards for public interest reporting.

Our work has four main pillars:

Investigations

We work for the public. We report on topics that few other news organizations are covering in depth, including how crime and corruption are fueling the crises of our time: war, climate change, inequality, and threats to democracy.

Investigating tough issues in some of the world’s most dangerous countries, OCCRP looks at what matters in every corner of the globe, helps local reporters make cross-border connections, and brings their stories to a larger audience.

Readers come to OCCRP for news and information they can’t get anywhere else and to gain a larger understanding of how organized crime and corruption operate today. Read more about our impact.

Infrastructure

We help build and sustain news organizations by providing journalists in our global network with critical services:

• access to reporting partners

• investigative technology and data

• robust editing and fact-checking

• digital and physical security support

• protection against legal harassment

• resources and fundraising assistance

Our reporting partners share data, expertise, and local knowledge — which, in turn, strengthens the entire network, helping us uncover more crime and corruption.

Innovation

We build tools and resources that all journalists can use so their investigative reporting better serves the public.

OCCRP Aleph: The Data Tool That Supercharges Investigations

Aleph is a data platform containing more than 4 billion documents. It helps journalists and activists uncover key facts about people, companies, financial transactions — and much more. 

The Aleph software is open source and available for anyone to use. More than 50 investigative media outlets have adopted Aleph as their in-house standard. Some of the data we store on OCCRP Aleph is open to the public; journalists and activists can apply for extended access here.

OCCRP ID

Our expert researchers and data specialists help the OCCRP network track down people, companies, and assets — like ships and planes — anywhere in the world.

Anyone can browse our global index of public registries for company, land, and court records — containing 1,000+ sources from 180+ countries. 

Reporters Shield: Legal Protection for Investigative Reporting

Media outlets across the globe are increasingly being targeted with expensive and draining lawsuits known as  SLAPPs — strategic lawsuits against public participation. OCCRP created Reporters Shield, a first-of-its-kind membership program that defends investigative reporting from legal threats.

Impact

We forge untraditional partnerships to further our impact. 

The Global Anti-Corruption Consortium (GACC)

Our groundbreaking partnership with Transparency International accelerates the global fight against corruption by combining investigative reporting with civil society advocacy to achieve more impact. Through GACC, investigative reporting feeds into advocacy, legal submissions, academic research, and other activities. Our work engaged more than 100 collaborators in the past two years, and led to more than 160 real-world results, including investigations, arrests, sanction designations, and policy reform.

Floodlight: Fiction in the Public Interest

Floodlight connects investigative journalism and the film and television industry to produce fiction that informs, entertains, and inspires action. Created by OCCRP, the Gabo Foundation (founded by Gabriel García Márquez Foundation), and film industry professionals, Floodlight fuses fact with storytelling in service of the public interest.

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