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Greetings From Amsterdam,
Our colleagues in Kyrgyzstan are being targeted by the state. Our reporting in Fiji brings real world impact. Our new podcast quickly attracts a following — you can subscribe to that here.
Also, thank you again to everyone who joined our past two OCCRP Discussions. We always enjoy interacting with our supporters, especially when they ask great questions 🙂
Reply to this newsletter with any ideas for future OCCRP Discussions. If it’s about organized crime and corruption, we should be able to make it happen.
Here’s this week’s newsletter:
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🇰🇬 The Political Power of Central Asia’s Shadow Investor, Kyrgyzstan Edition
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Remember the Abdukadyrs? The secretive Uighur family, accused of running a smuggling empire throughout Central Asia, was largely able to conduct business in the shadows until 2019. That’s when our award-winning Plunder and Patronage series exposed their ties to a corrupt customs official and a self-described money launderer who was killed before our investigations were published.
Earlier this year, OCCRP and partners continued to investigate the Abdukadyr family, their political ties, and their millions. The new investigative series uncovered their business interests across Central Asia — and how their investments are tied to local politicians and other elites.
This week, we revealed more about their latest Kyrgyz projects — and their local relationships 👇
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Story 1️⃣ — The Abdukadyrs Do Bishkek: Khabibula Abdukadyr, the patriarch of the family, is an investor in two of the highest-profile development projects in Kyrgyzstan — the Yiman Borboru mosque, which seats 20,000 worshippers, and the Bishkek City Center, which will be the tallest building in the capital. President Sadyr Japarov promoted the two projects extensively — but our findings raise questions about his personal ties to these developments and to Abdukadyr.
>> Read the full story
Story 2️⃣ — The Abdukadyr-Matraimov Marriage: The OCCRP network obtained exclusive evidence of a wedding between an Abdukadyr family member and the son of Raimbek Matraimov, the corrupt customs official that allegedly helped them with their smuggling. Matraimov had always denied any personal ties to the Abdukadyr family.
>> Read the full story
🌐 The Big Picture: Are the Abdukadyrs untouchable? The family has been accused of criminality throughout the region. Officials linked to their spheres of influence have been disgraced, sanctioned, and in some cases overthrown. Yet the Abdukadyrs continue to thrive as some of Central Asia’s most prolific investors. Again and again, our reporting finds, they’ve been able to build close ties with local political elites.
🤫 Silencing Journalists: Kyrgyz citizens may struggle to read our reporting. Internet providers started blocking the website of our local member center Kloop.
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Join the fight against corruption.
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🇸🇬 Members of Alleged Singapore Money Laundering Syndicate Bought London Properties Worth $56M
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In an August, authorities in Singapore raided a massive money laundering ring, seizing assets worth $1.32 billion, including cash, jewelry, and cars.
But the group’s reach went further. We reveal that suspected syndicate members also own prestige properties in London, including a Foot Locker in Oxford Circus.
🏙️ Buying Iconic Architecture: Major pieces of real estate can have surprising owners. In 2021, we revealed how Indonesian palm oil tycoon Sukanto Tanoto secretly purchased the historic Ludwig complex in Munich by using an obscure firm in Luxembourg.
>> Read the full story
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🇨🇭 Missed Red Flags: Leak Exposes Swiss Asset Management Firm’s Work for Clients Accused of Fraud and Corruption
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Leaked documents from a Swiss wealth management firm were posted online by a Russian hacker group.
Then journalists obtained the #ZurichLeak — and got an inside look at how the firm assisted clients including some with high-level political connections or who were embroiled in legal scandals.
>> Read the full story
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🇳🇱 Follow The Money: Our Dutch partner reports on a think tank that watchers of Viktor Orban say is designed to support and promote the Hungarian strongman’s conservative political agenda in Brussels.
🇱🇧 Daraj.com: Our Lebanese member center reports on the rise of militia groups, one of which claims to be defending the Christian community, as the country struggles to provide basic services to citizens.
🇷🇺 IStories: Our Russian member center reports on how Airbus and Boeing plane parts have found their way into Russia despite strict sanctions in place against such imports.
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🇫🇯 Fiji: The Fijian government has detained the local leader and deported six members of Grace Road Church, a Korean doomsday sect that became a political force in the Pacific country.
In 2022, OCCRP and Newstapa published an investigation exposing how Grace Road received millions in loans from the state-backed Fiji Development Bank.
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🇬🇧 UK: The British government started a task force that will offer legal regulations that could reduce the number of SLAPPs — vexatious lawsuits aimed at silencing critical voices — filed against journalists.
🌏 Global: The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe urged member states to stop using national security concerns as an excuse to spy on journalists. Hungary, an OSCE member, appears to have targeted our colleague Szabolcs Panyi with Pegasus spyware, as revealed in the Pegasus Project.
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🇨🇳 China: The former chairman of China Life Insurance was sentenced to life in prison for taking $44.6 million in bribes. The conviction is part of Beijing's two-year long crackdown on the financial industry.
🇲🇿 Mozambique: A London court ruled that Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi cannot be sued in the UK as long as he’s head of state of the African nation. The lawsuit was filed by two companies at the center of Mozambique’s so-called “tuna bond” corruption scandal, which triggered a massive debt crisis and the collapse of its currency.
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🇪🇺 EU: Europol published a report into how organized crime groups have developed an underground financial system to launder massive amounts of money.
🇺🇸 USA: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has warned US citizens of a type of scam known as “pig butchering,” in which victims are tricked into slowly putting money into seemingly reputable digital currency investments before the scammer takes it all.
🇹🇭 Thailand: Authorities seized approximately 1,000 artifacts and antiques, many of which originated from areas of China and India that were once under Siamese authority. The allegedly looted artifacts were being sold on Facebook.
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P.S. Thank you for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply with any feedback.
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