The Proxy Platform

Published: November 22, 2011

Banner: OCCRP

While governments and citizens of Eastern Europe were struggling with the recent financial crisis and trying to borrow money from international financial institutions, billions of euros circulated in the region in an illegal, parallel, system that enriched organized crime figures and corrupt politicians.The system is built on hundreds, maybe thousands, of ever-morphing phantom companies.

They exist on paper only and appear to be run by scores of common people, who are, in fact, simply proxies. Many are unaware that their names appear in official documents as the human face of a company. Others are naïve or don’t care.

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Stories

Investigation

Following the Magnitsky Money

As Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky slowly died in a Russian prison from abuse and neglect, US$230 million (5.4 billion...

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Moscow Airport Used in Fuel Fraud

Phantom companies that sold fuel to Moscow’s main airport at inflated prices were connected to a network of companies and...

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The Latvian Proxies

Latvia, a country on the coast of the Baltic Sea and a former part of the Soviet Union, has been at the heart of a number of...

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Behind the Proxies

Latvian citizens Erik Vanagels and Stan Gorin should be billionaires if you look at the hundreds and maybe thousands of...

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Russian Laundering Machine

The money allegedly stolen by Russian authorities through Hermitage Capital passed through a series of front companies...

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The Proxy Platform

While governments and citizens of Eastern Europe were struggling with the recent financial crisis and trying to borrow money...

Investigation

The Phantom Accounts

In 2008, a Romanian who felt cheated by three Moldovan businessmen filed a civil case in an obscure courthouse in the...

Investigation

Tormex Users: A Proxy World

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) looked at more than 500 pages of transactions at Tormex’s...

Investigation

The Money Carousel

Reporters from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) met Moldovan citizen Vadim Ciornea, aka Cascei,...

Investigation

Money from Moldova

Nomirex Trading Limited and Bristoll Export Limited are two companies that played small roles in the transfer of funds in...

Investigation

Death of a Lawyer

Exactly two years after his death in a dank, frigid, rat-infested cell, Sergei Magnitsky has become a byword for the...

Investigation

Latvian Bank Woes

Latvia has made itself into an important transit hub between Russia and other former Soviet republics and the West by...

Investigation

About Us

The project was done by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project -- a consortium of investigative centers,...

Investigation

Documents

Documents relating to The Proxy Platform.