Experts say that Nigeria’s willingness to pay ransoms, something the government denies, is making school kidnappings ever more attractive to organized criminals, who have abducted more than 600 students since December last year.

The U.S. State Department banned one of Ukraine’s most powerful oligarchs, Ihor Kolomoisky, from entering the United States because of his involvement in “significant corruption,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Friday.

A judge ordered one of Equatorial Guinea’s most influential lawyers, NJ Ayuk, to apologize and retract a series of defamatory statements he made against Delfin Mochache Massoko, a journalist who partnered with OCCRP on an investigation that exposed how millions of dollars were allegedly siphoned in bribes by the country's oil minister. 

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao has abused the power and the resources of her office to help promote her father’s new book, speed up the process of a work visa, and run personal errands, a report released by the Department of Transportation said.

The multimillion-dollar trade in Oriental magpie-robins appears to be intensifying in Malaysia, with thousands of wild birds trapped and trafficked for Indonesians seeking caged pets, according to a report published Friday.

Colombia is considering centralizing the purchase of gold to combat illegal mining, violence, and environmental damage and prevent the mineral from entering the black market.

U.S. authorities have arrested the alleged leader of a criminal clan known as Group America, believed to have smuggled tons of cocaine across the world. The gang is known for dismembering enemies with chainsaws, assassinating senior government officials and cooperating with intelligence agencies.

The United States is offering US$5 million for information that could  help disrupt the criminal organization of Kyrgyzstan’s most powerful gangster, Kamchibek Kolbayev, who was arrested in October but suddenly released from pre-trial detention this week.

Trafficking in fake viagra, raids at FC Barcelona soccer club, a BitCoin-induced energy meltdown, and ‘American Tiger’ poaching ― all things weird and criminal from this past week, from us here at OCCRP.

South African authorities have seized hundreds of fake COVID-19 vaccines and a large quantity of fake 3M face masks in an operation prompted by an Interpol global alert that said vaccines may become “a prime target for criminal networks.”