April 11, 2022 – Today, the Dutch Postcode Lottery announced its selection of OCCRP as a recipient of a 1 million euro grant from the funds received from the lottery’s 3 million participants. This unrestricted funding will boost OCCRP’s work exposing high-level corruption, cross-border organized crime networks, and the unscrupulous banks, law firms, and others that enable tax avoidance and money laundering. The grant will also support the relocation of OCCRP’s global headquarters from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Netherlands, scheduled for this summer. This move will position the organization to better serve the journalists in its global network and advance its mission.
“Having a home base in a country that champions media freedom and transparency will allow us to greatly increase our impact,” said OCCRP Publisher Drew Sullivan. “We’re very grateful to the Dutch Postcode Lottery for this meaningful investment in our work.”
“Western Europe is a major hub for transnational criminal groups as well as money laundering, as OCCRP has repeatedly shown, most recently with our Suisse Secrets and Russian Asset Tracker projects,” said OCCRP Co-Founder Paul Radu.
“This support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and our move to the Netherlands will help us to serve the Dutch and European public, but also the world, as we work to reveal these global systems that are so damaging to society.”
Relocating to the Netherlands will help OCCRP strengthen its infrastructure and expand its reach.
“This support will help make our editors more accessible and enable stronger coordination with our press freedom, anti-corruption, and other important partners,” said Camille Eiss, Chief of Global Partnerships and Policy. “In a historically punishing time for independent media, we’re thankful for the Dutch Postcode Lottery’s recognition of investigative journalism as a public good and we’re excited to ramp up this next phase of OCCRP’s global expansion.”
For more information, please contact Lauren Jackman, Communications Officer, lauren@occrp.org
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The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a nonprofit investigative reporting platform for 50+ independent media outlets around the world, publishing more than 120 investigations and stories a year. By developing and equipping a global network of investigative journalists and publishing their stories, OCCRP exposes crime and corruption so the public can hold power to account.
The Dutch Postcode Lottery was founded in 1989 to support charities that work to create a more just and greener world. The lottery raises funds for its charity partners and draws attention to the work they are doing. The Postcode Lottery format is also used in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Norway. Together, the Postcode Lotteries are the third biggest private charity donor in the world.
