An embattled member of the Bangladesh Parliament has filed a lawsuit demanding US$52 million in damages from an attorney who was seeking an investigation into the lawmaker’s suspected financial irregularities first reported by OCCRP in January.

Hackers stole US$3.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency last year, surpassing the $3.3 billion record registered in 2021 despite a dramatic fall in the crypto market’s value, according to a new report by blockchain analysis firm Chainanalysis. North Korean hackers stole most of it.

Polish and Belarusian authorities detained over a dozen suspects believed to be part of a large-scale tobacco smuggling network operating between the two countries and potentially throughout the European continent.

On the fifth anniversary of the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, a Slovak investigative center named after him has launched on Monday an initiative to enhance journalists’ safety, which is identified as one of Slovakia’s most pressing issues.

After Indian tax authorities concluded what they called “surveys” of the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai last week, journalists and activists are wondering whether it is still possible to speak out in India and call things for what they are.

Law enforcement agencies across Europe dismantled a Franco-Israeli crime network that specialized in impersonating high ranking personnel in various companies and use their authority to have more than 38 million euros (US$40.6 million) transferred to their own bank accounts.

Russia has “systematically relocated” possibly more than 6,000 children from Ukraine to several re-educating and adoption facilities in occupied Crimea and mainland Russia, which could be considered a war crime, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) warned.

Pro-government lawmakers in Georgia have drafted a bill that would introduce new requirements for organizations that receive funding from abroad, with many experts worried that, if passed, the law could be used to restrict the freedoms of independent media and NGOs.

Italian police arrested a Nigerian woman who is believed to be the ‘Madame’ of a sex trafficking ring that engages in “Ju-Ju” or voodoo rituals in order to indoctrinate its victims into total submission.

The European Union blacklisted Russia, Costa Rica, the British Virgin Islands and the Marshall Islands as tax havens on Tuesday, bringing the total number of blacklisted countries to 16, the Council of the EU said. The new list has already drawn criticism from experts.