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Greetings From Amsterdam,
In the past seven days, the OCCRP network has exposed a fake bank, an alleged graft scheme in Libya, and a business relationship between a friend of Serbia’s president and a suspected drug trafficker.
Fellow journalists will also enjoy a blog post explaining how our research team investigates names across different alphabets and naming conventions. We also have updates to share about our member centers and the global anti-corruption movement at large.
In short, this week’s newsletter is a big one.
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🧭 Navigate This Newsletter
- New Investigations: Bandenia, The Fake Bank // Graft in Libya Affects Sierra Leone // More Murky Dealings w/ Serbia’s President “Best Man” // Belarus and Venezuela's Handshake Deals
- The OCCRP Network: Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria
- Reporting Methods: What’s in a Name? An OCCRP Researcher Explains
- More Corruption News
- More Organized Crime News
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🏦 Bandenia: The Fake Bank
In 2017, Spanish authorities dismantled a sham bank that allegedly laundered millions for criminals by using shell companies to open accounts at legitimate financial institutions.
Now, we have found that multiple people central to that operation have been opening new shell companies around the world.
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Dozens of Shell Companies in a Trench Coat with a Bogus Banking License
The initial Bandenia set-up involved about two dozen companies that masqueraded as a bank, using a fake banking license from the Comoros archipelago.
It has been accused of laundering money on an "industrial" scale for over 250 clients.
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Another Fake Bank in the U.K.
Figures involved in various Bandenia firms have been opening new companies in several countries. In the U.K., we found a shell company calling itself “Bandenia Challenger Bank.” In reality, it’s not a bank at all — but it’s managed to dupe high-profile people into believing it’s a real financial institution.
A British member of parliament even introduced Bandenia Challenger Bank’s CEO in glowing terms at a U.K. parliamentary forum last year.
That MP said he would resign from the parliamentary group that organized the forum after hearing about the group’s background.
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🌐 The Big Picture: This investigation exposes questionable due diligence and regulatory systems in the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. How were people associated with a high-profile fake bank scheme in Spain able to create an avalanche of new companies, many of which used the same “Bandenia” brand name?
🤔 Our Data and Sources: This investigation is based on corporate filings and court records in multiple countries.
>> Read the full story
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🇱🇾 Libyan General Allegedly Skimmed State Funds From Investment Deal in Sierra Leone
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A former Libyan general is accused of pocketing $1.4 million from the sale of a ferry to Sierra Leone. Here’s what we found:
This investigation centers around a Libyan state investment fund called the “Libyan African Investment Portfolio” (LAIP), a branch of the sovereign wealth fund.
LAIP started in 2006 as part of Mummar Gaddafi’s plan to invest Libya’s oil wealth into projects across Africa.
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In 2008, a relative of Gaddafi, former general Abdusalam Abulghasem Abughila, lobbied for the fund to pay $4 million for a ferry in Sierra Leone, which was recovering from civil war.
But the money was deposited into Abughila’s personal account.
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Who’s In Control?
Since the breakout of the civil war, two competing governments have emerged in Libya, both of which have declared their own state institutions, including the sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, which funds projects like the ferry deal we investigated. >> Read more about how this fight for power has allowed state funds to remain adrift.
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A Panamanian firm called Almuhit, which was controlled by Abughila, was then used to buy the ferry for $2.6 million. It was ultimately sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone.
This means that not only did Abughila allegedly siphon $1.4 million ($4M - $2.6M) from the ferry deal, but he also secretly arranged for his own offshore company to own the vessel.
Meanwhile in Sierra Leone, the ferry was plagued by breakdowns and spent time in a junkyard.
🌐 The Big Picture: This investigation not only illustrates the once-murky mechanics of Gaddafi-era graft, but also shows how political turmoil has complicated the struggle for control over the country’s substantial assets since the dictator’s fall.
🤔 Our Data and Sources: This investigation draws from confidential documents, banking records, and court filings in Belgium. Some of these documents can be downloaded here.
>> Read the full story
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🇷🇸 More Murky Business Dealings With Serbian President’s Close Confidant
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Nikola Petrović, the “best man” of Serbian President Aleksander Vučić, was in business with a man later named by Europol as a suspected drug trafficker.
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What’s a ‘Best Man?’
In many Balkan nations, a “best man,” or “kum,” is an important social role for someone who is as close as family, like a blood brother.
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From 2004 to 2010, Petrović co-owned a Serbian telecoms firm alongside Dejan Stanimirović, who was shot and killed in 2020 in Colombia at the home of a suspected narco boss.
🌐 The Big Picture: In Serbia, criminal syndicates are enmeshed with the state. President Vučić has denied having any involvement with organized crime, yet this is the second business relationship OCCRP and KRIK have revealed between Petrović and someone with suspected links to the underworld.
>> Read the full story
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🇻🇪 The Case of the Missing $1.4 Billion: Hugo Chávez’s Handshake Deals With Belarus 🇧🇾
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s friendship with Hugo Chávez deprived Venezuela of roughly $1.4 billion in unpaid oil shipments.
In an oil deal signed in October 2010, Belarus promised to pay most of each shipment’s value after delivery, then settle the rest later.
When shipments stopped in May 2012, Belarus owed Venezuela $1.4 billion — but this was never paid. By 2015, a Belarusian government memo described the $1.4 billion as “assistance” from Venezuela with no obligation to pay.
🌐 The Big Picture: In addition to the unpaid oil money, these deals also resulted in unbuilt housing projects and vehicle factories that have lagged well behind their production targets. One Belarusian analyst said the cooperation between the two countries “was more about Chávez liking Lukashenko and Lukashenko liking Chávez” than providing actual economic or political benefit.
🤔 Our Data and Sources: This investigation was based on a leak of Venezuelan government documents obtained by OCCRP, Armando.info, and the Belarusian Investigative Center.
>> Read the full story
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Join the fight against corruption.
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🇭🇺 Atlatszo: Our Hungarian member center reports on an EU-funded canopy walkway where all the surrounding trees — which the footpath was supposed to showcase — were cut down during the construction. Atlatszo’s investigation into the boondoogle made headlines throughout Hungary and sparked complaints from anti-corruption advocates.
🇮🇹 IrpiMedia: Our Italian member center reports on the human cost behind Iraq’s recent surge in oil exports to Europe. In Iraqi cities like Basra, river water is increasingly being used to extract more crude from the ground, leaving more and more people with less drinking water and electricity.
🇧🇬 BIRD: Our Bulgarian member center is facing several frivolous lawsuits, known as SLAPPs, related to their investigations into the infamous scam artist known as the “Cryptoqueen.” As part of the legal proceedings, a prosecutor’s office in Bulgaria has reportedly released sensitive information involving a Bird.Bg source.
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What’s in a Name? One name can have multiple spellings and formats. OCCRP researcher Lara Dihmis explains how she investigates people with non-English language names. >> Read the blog post
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ProPublica revealed that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose several luxury trips and other expenses paid for by Harlan Crow, a billionaire donor to the Republican Party and other conservative groups.
Anti-corruption advocates warn that the U.S. Corporate Transparency Act, a landmark anti-money laundering bill signed into law in early 2021, is in danger of never being implemented. The main obstacles involve questions around who can access U.S. corporate ownership data — information that has already been made publicly available in the U.K. and previously in the European Union.
The Financial Times reports on how the collapse of a high-profile fraud case in the U.K. has triggered a debate about how the Serious Fraud Office handles large amounts of data.
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MORE ORGANIZED CRIME NEWS
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British Columbia lawmakers have introduced legislation that will expand the use of civil forfeiture for funds suspected to be linked to money laundering.
A U.S. court sentenced five people for their involvement in a massive biofuel tax fraud that deprived the government of roughly $1 billion.
The U.S. Treasury Department published a report about how decentralized financial services are abused by organized crime groups and hostile state actors.
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P.S. Thank you for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply with any feedback.
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