Jaroslav Strnad, the chief financial backer of the Czech president, has been secretly snapping up arms stockpiles and factories throughout the Balkans with the help of a cast of notorious local characters. The buy-up has included tens of millions of rounds of old ammunition of a type so unreliable that a previous attempt to sell it inspired a Hollywood movie.
Corruption is everywhere. An estimated $1 trillion is paid in bribes and another $2.6 trillion is stolen worldwide every year, according to the United Nations. These incredible sums make up five percent of the world’s economy. And they mostly come out of the pockets of the...
The Paradise Papers is a major new leak of documents from two offshore services firms based in Bermuda and Singapore, as well as from 19 corporate registries maintained by governments in secret offshore jurisdictions. The documents were obtained by the Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which...
A Novaya Gazeta and OCCRP investigation looks into the wealth surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A joint investigation by Efecto Cocuyo and OCCRP explores the Orinoco Mining Arc — the Venezuelan government's controversial attempt to find new sources of wealth — and the devastating effects of the mining on the people who live there.
The Azerbaijani Laundromat is a complex money-laundering operation and slush fund that handled $2.9 billion over a two-year period through four shell companies registered in the UK.
Great power politics has returned to the Balkans. The countries of the region – riven by authoritarianism, political rivalry, and ethnic tensions – are caught between an increasingly assertive Russia and a NATO eager for new allies. As the world reckons with a new era of propaganda, this European hotspot has become a key battleground in information warfare.
Bombardier is a Canadian transportation conglomerate that controls Bombardier Transportation, a Swedish engineering firm and one of the world’s largest producers of railway signaling equipment. Bombardier technology makes the trains run from Eurasia to Latin America, and its globe-spanning business shows no signs of slowing down.
Since the outbreak of war in Syria, weapons from Central and Eastern Europe have flooded the conflict zone through two distinct pipelines – one sponsored by Saudi Arabia and coordinated by the CIA, and the other funded and directed by the Pentagon.
Moldovan banks are in a life-and-death struggle. Many have been involved in money laundering and asset thefts that have moved tens of billions of dollars from Russia to the West. Then when $1 billion disappeared from three Moldovan banks last year, the theft raised more questions than it answered and dealt a brutal blow to the economy.
Siniša Mali, the powerful mayor of the Serbian capital of Belgrade and a close associate and former advisor of current Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, prides himself on being a modern, progressive leader.