OCCRP @OCCRP@mastodon.cloud
Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project. Reinventing & reinvigorating investigative journalism. Support us http://occrp.org/en/donate | boost ≠ endorse
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Recently ranked as Latin America's happiest country, #CostaRica 🌴 has indeed proven a happy place for one kind of guest: fugitives from #Romania.
https://www.occrp.org/en/28-ccwatch/cc-watch-indepth/8228-a-welcoming-caribbean-shore-for-high-level-romanian-fugitives
They were once two of the most powerful women in Romania — a top government minister and a chief prosecutor.
But when they found themselves fugitives, convicted on corruption charges and facing years in prison, they chose the same escape: Costa Rica.
They found help in the form of a Romanian who has a checkered past himself.
#Serbia's health minister allegedly has long-standing ties to the #Zemun criminal gang. 💉 He's even written sick notes for one of the gang's most notorious enforcers to help him avoid court hearings. Read the latest story by KRIK here: https://www.occrp.org/en/28-ccwatch/cc-watch-indepth/8198-how-serbia-s-health-minister-helped-a-criminal-avoid-trial
Seized Mafia Villa to Become #LGBT Center
https://www.occrp.org/en/27-ccwatch/cc-watch-briefs/8239-seized-mafia-villa-to-become-lgbt-center
A villa seized from a Camorra Mafia boss near Naples will be converted into a shelter for LGBT Italians and migrants fleeing violent discrimination, The Local reported Wednesday.
Among our newest property profiles on #Dubai's Golden Sands we've also got Flamur and Fatmi Azemi from #Albania linked to $1 million in real estate. Read their profiles on our map!
https://www.occrp.org/en/goldensands/#interactive
US “Zero Tolerance” Policy May Increase Organized Crime
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/8240-u-s-zero-tolerance-policy-may-increase-organized-crime
The stated purpose of the policy was to lower crime rates by prosecuting everyone who crosses the border illegally and removing the possibility for asylum until after they have been prosecuted.
However, the new regulation will only increase the demand for illegal methods of border crossing, argues Steven Dudley, the co-director of InSight Crime.
"One finance professional told Mossack Fonseca that he had never given permission for his name to be written on offshore company documents, let alone made public.
“It’s gob smacking, and I demand you DELETE my name from all your files,” Jean-Yves de Louvigny wrote in an email to the firm’s Luxembourg office."
https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/inside-the-fall-of-mossack-fonseca
“This email will, probably, be intercepted like 11,600,000 other documents. I don't care.”
Indeed, it has been.
Read the story about the beginning of the end of infamous offshore firm #MossackFonseca on the new #PanamaPapers 🌴💸 here: https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/inside-the-fall-of-mossack-fonseca
There are more stories coming in the next days and weeks. Watch this space.
https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/
New leak consists of 1.2 million documents which mostly cover the years 2016 and 2017. They offer an account of the meltdown experienced by Mossack Fonseca in the wake of the unprecedented investigation that brought its practices to light.
https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/inside-the-fall-of-mossack-fonseca
Investigation of these new documents has enabled journalists to tie many loose ends, to uncover even more wrongdoing, and to reveal new twists and turns in what was once a hermetically closed world of offshore dealings.
Two years after the original Panama Papers leaks, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung has received a fresh trove of leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca, the now-defunct Panamanian law firm.
https://www.occrp.org/en/panamapapers/
To analyze and report on the new data, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has once again organized a collaborative investigation which includes the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its partner centers
Pregnant #women in #Venezuela are going without adequate food or medical attention in the midst of a national economic emergency.
The #government insists on attributing the crisis to an external plot to overthrow it, while the opposition blames the administration for inefficiency and #corruption.
We're working to tell the experiences of the women suffering from the crisis in our #HungerStories series with Efecto Cocuyo. Read the stories here: https://www.occrp.org/en/timeofhunger/
Yesterday, Slovakia’s National Crime Agency seized a mobile phone belonging to @OCCRP 's partner, investigative reporter Pavla Holcova.
Slovak police invited Pavla for an interview for what we believed was a friendly meeting to aid the investigation into the murder of Jan Kuciak.
Instead, Pavla was interrogated for over eight hours. (...) Police made comments during the interrogation suggesting the Holcova’s professional history was “always against the system.”
#Journalist's Phone Taken by Police:
Pavla, a journalist with OCCRP, was interrogated for 8 hours. It clearly outside of the scope of Jan's murder investigation. Police made comments during the interrogation suggesting her professional history was “always against the system.”
In fact, #Slovak #police seemed more interested in our reporting of the murder, our internal communication, & the intentions of other media reporting the issue.
In #Venezuela, pregnant women are going without adequate food or medical attention in the midst of a national economic emergency. The government insists on attributing the crisis to an external plot to overthrow it, while the opposition blames the administration for inefficiency and corruption.
We've teamed up with Efecto Cocuyo to investigate what is happening on the ground and how women are experiencing the healthcare system's collapse.
Check out the #HungerStories: https://www.occrp.org/en/timeofhunger/
What happens to #journalists is the barometer by which we measure #freespeech, #humanrights, government #accountability and #democracy itself. If the #EuropeanUnion is to continue to lead the world in media freedom, it needs to do everything in its power to defend its independent reporters.
A recently adopted #EuropeanParliament resolution urging greater action is a step in the right direction. But it is not nearly enough.
Read more from our Communications Officer: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/05/03/europes-journalists-are-at-risk-heres-what-the-e-u-could-do-to-protect-them/?utm_term=.b82edc738a40
We have watched, with growing concern, the challenges reporters in our network face in #Hungary, the #CzechRepublic, and #Serbia. They’ve been smeared, threatened and even imprisoned.
On this #WorldPressFreedomDay, and every day, OCCRP honors the sacrifices our colleagues make in their commitment to uncovering the truth and speaking it to authority.
We also remember the journalists killed doing their work, including #JanKuciak and #DaphneCaruanaGalizia.
Maltese taxpayers could be losing tens of millions of dollars per year in an energy deal with Azerbaijan, according to expert analysis of leaked files given to #DaphneCaruanaGalizia before her death.
The deal was signed in 2015 and deliveries began last April. Since then, through the end of March 2018, #Malta has paid SOCAR at least €131.6 million (US$ 153 million) for its gas — at nearly twice open market rates.
Read more from the #DaphneProject:
https://www.occrp.org/en/thedaphneproject/maltese-taxpayers-losing-out-in-gas-deal-with-azerbaijan
Children of the two most powerful officials in #Azerbaijan – President #IlhamAliyev and Minister of Emergencies #KamaladdinHeydarov – used dozens of offshore companies as cover for investments in luxury properties, businesses, and high-end hotels across Europe and Middle East.
Read more from the #DaphneProject: https://www.occrp.org/en/thedaphneproject/pilatus-a-private-bank-for-azerbaijans-ruling-elite
A reporter for #KRIK, the Serbian partner of @OCCRP, spotted #Belgrade, #Serbia’s mayor Sinisa Mali last Sunday in the business class section of an #AirSerbia flight.
Mali was apparently visiting #Rome for a long weekend and staying in a five-star luxury hotel on a popular shopping street in the heart of Rome’s historical center, reporters learned. On the basis of the tickets and the hotel stay alone, the trip cost at least 7 months of Mali’s salary, KRIK estimates.
The #DaphneProject seeks to continue the work of killed journalist #DaphneCaruanaGalizia. The latest from the @OCCRP and partners:
Before she was killed, Caruana Galizia was investigating #Malta's citizenship for sale program. A new report shows deep connections between profits from the passports and profits from the politicians.
