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Global: A former employee of Vitol Group, one of the world’s largest commodity traders, was convicted in the U.S. last month of maintaining a bribery scheme that deprived Ecuador of potentially billions of dollars in oil revenue. Bloomberg details the landmark case and its implications for the global commodity trading industry at large.
Vitol was not the only oil trader implicated during the trial. An Ecuadorian official testified that he had also been bribed by Gunvor and Trafigura Group, two key competitors of Vitol that OCCRP has investigated in the past.
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Trafigura Group: In 2021, we revealed how Trafigura profited extensively after partnering with a close ally of Zimbabwe’s president in order to dominate the country’s fuel market. In 2019, we also revealed the multinational’s alleged role in secretly funneling weapons into South Sudan during its civil war.
Estonia: Estonia’s justice minister resigned over allegations that he used state funds to rent an apartment owned by his stepson.
South Africa: Authorities raided the home of the speaker of South Africa’s parliament, who is suspected of receiving at least $120,000 in bribes from a defense contractor between 2016 and 2019.
Iran: Yashar Soltani, a local journalist who has previously been prosecuted for his reporting, has published another investigation about a close ally to the Iranian government. The new documents published by Soltani allegedly show how a prominent cleric and his son acquired 4,000+ square meters of prime real estate in Tehran that was under the stewardship of the municipal government. You can read the original report in Farsi here.
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