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Greetings From Amsterdam,
Before we share our latest investigations and other news in the fight against corruption, we wanted to remind you to take our annual survey if you haven’t already. Media organizations need to evolve to survive, and surveys like this help ensure we’re evolving in the right direction.
Now, here’s the latest in global crime and corruption:
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🇺🇸 Pro-Kremlin U.S. Filmmaker Pitched Fawning Films to Dictators — Starring Oliver Stone
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Vladimir Putin, Alexander Lukashenko, and Ilham Aliyev have all been accused of horrific crimes against the citizens of the countries they rule.
But where the world sees brutal dictators, U.S.-based filmmaker Igor Lopatonok sees opportunity. In collaboration with Oscar-winning film director Oliver Stone, he produced two documentaries on Ukraine that were widely panned as pro-Kremlin propaganda. His film “Ukraine on Fire,” in which Stone interviews Vladimir Putin, is arguably the most well-known.
A few years later, Lopatonok and Stone started working on an eight-part series that gushed over the achievements of Kazakhstan’s former longtime leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. A “charitable” foundation controlled by Nazarbayev, we revealed in 2022, paid the duo at least $5 million to produce the film.
A fawning depiction of a dictator — paid for by those close to said dictator — appears to be a template that Lopatonok has tried to replicate with other authoritarians. That’s what this week’s investigation is about 👇
Reporters obtained documents that showed Lopatonok and his team prepared synoposes to secure funding for other hagiographic films about authoritarian governments.
A key selling point of at least two of these pitches was that Oliver Stone would supposedly conduct on-camera interviews with the dictators to help tell their “true story.”
One of the most odious strongmen Lopatonok was prepared to portray positively was Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who has essentially outlawed dissent in the Caucasus nation. The estimated cost for production was $15 million.
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🎬 The Role of Oliver Stone: While Stone has worked with Lopatonok in the past, it is unclear whether the acclaimed director knew about the film pitches revealed in this story. Stone and his business manager did not respond to requests for comment.
However, Lopatonok told reporters (during a combative interview) that Stone was fully aware that he had proposed documentaries to several dictators, whom he referred to as “my heroes.”
“You will not make any news with that,” Lopatonok said in response to a question about Stone’s knowledge of the pitches. “You know that, right?”
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🇦🇲 Coordinated Cash: Donation Data From Armenia’s Ruling Party Raises Questions About Source of Funds
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Our Armenian partner Civilnet identified a series of odd patterns in donations to the country’s ruling Civil Contract political party. In some cases, they found donations that amounted to at least half of the yearly income and total savings of the donors, according to asset declarations.
Reporters called 31 of the people who made these curious contributions, and half denied ever making one.
These unusual donation patterns emerged just one year after the government passed anti-corruption reforms barring businesses from donating to political parties, outlawing cash donations, and capping the maximum amount that private individuals could contribute.
🌐 The Big Picture: Civil Contract swept into power in 2018 with a mandate to root out corruption, following a mass protest movement that toppled Armenia’s former regime. Experts say the revelations in our investigation could reveal an effort to evade the anti-corruption reforms and hide the origins of Civil Contract’s funds.
>> Read the full story
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Join the fight against corruption.
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➖ Some Bad News: Russia designated Radio Svoboda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – RFE/RL) an “undesirable organization,” putting its staff at risk of imprisonment and outlawing any form of engagement with the outlet, including online content sharing.
Russian officials labeled OCCRP and our member center as undesirable organizations in 2022, forcing local reporters in our network to move into exile.
➕ Some Good News: The British government has thrown its support behind a bill aimed at combating ‘Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,’ or SLAPPs. These baseless defamation lawsuits pose one of the biggest threats against investigative journalism today.
OCCRP is currently facing dozens of SLAPPs some of which have been filed in the U.K. due to the country’s expansive libel laws.
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🇳🇬 Who Will Clean Shell’s Pollution in Nigeria? After operating in Nigeria for nearly a century, the British petroleum giant Shell is set to sell its onshore oil assets in the country. That has left locals wondering who will clean the company’s multiple oil spills in the Niger Delta, which Amnesty International has referred to as “one of the most polluted places on earth.”
OCCRP looked into the newly-formed consortium that will buy Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary and spoke with the communities affected by the environmental damage. >> Read more
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Peruvian PM Steps Down: Prime Minister Alberto Otarola resigned this week after local media alleged he gave a government job to a woman he was romantically involved with.
U.S. Moves Against Corruption: While the United States has historically been a hub for illicit money flows, the government has recently implemented several pro-transparency measures to counter the problem, which are detailed in this Financial Times op-ed. The author, Casey Michel, oversees the Human Rights Foundation (HRF)’s Combating Kleptocracy Program and is a judge for our Person of Year award.
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Yakuza Boss and Plutonium: The United States charged a leader within Japan’s Yakuza crime group for attempting to sell plutonium, a key component in nuclear weapons, to undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents who pretended to be acting on behalf of Iran. According to U.S. prosecutors, Takeshi Ebisawa obtained the fissile material in Myanmar.
Dutch Mafia Trial Ends: The longest trial in the history of the Netherlands concluded when a court imposed life sentences on three individuals, including the head of the “Mocro Maffia,” who was once considered the most wanted man in the country.
Crime in the Bloc: The European Public Prosecutor’s Office annual report calculates that organized crime damaged the European Union’s budget by 19.2 billion euro in 2023. Nearly 60 percent of those losses were associated with “serious, cross-border VAT (value added tax) fraud,” the report said.
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