Also, Romanian authorities acknowledged our investigation about fraud that could jeopardize efforts to protect Europe's forests

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NEW INVESTIGATIONS
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** How Italy’s 'Ndrangheta Mafia Allegedly Infiltrated Canadian Banks
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A Toronto-based faction of the 'Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful mafia, allegedly relied on relationships with staff at two major Canadian banks to facilitate their financial activities, according to court and police documents seen by OCCRP reporters.

Toronto Influences Siderno: That 'Ndrangheta operatives allegedly used major banks to launder money is already a big deal. But that’s not the only reason why this Canadian operation is noteworthy.

From his base in suburban Toronto, the suspected leader of the faction is thought to have influence over his 'Ndrangheta clan back home in Siderno — a power dynamic that Italian authorities have described as unprecedented.

“The fate of the entire association, also in Siderno, depends on decisions made in Canada,” according to Italian prosecutors who worked on the case.

Case Fell Apart: Canadian prosecutors decided to drop the case after they determined that police had unlawfully listened in on conversations between the defendants and their lawyers. Authorities also returned $27 million in assets they seized from the syndicate.

>> Read the full story ([link removed])

Want to know more about the 'Ndrangheta? The criminal organization, which originates from Calabria, is believed to rake in as much as $60 billion annually, chiefly through drug trafficking. Read more in this FAQ ([link removed]) .
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** OCCRP HAS IMPACT
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** Romania Admits to Flaws in Timber Tracing System
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Romanian authorities acknowledged the findings ([link removed]) of OCCRP’s recent investigation that exposed flaws in the country’s timber tracing system, which was implemented to protect some of Europe’s oldest forests.

More on our Findings: A key step in Romania’s digital tracing system, known as SUMAL, requires truck drivers to submit photographs of the timber they’re hauling.

But OCCRP discovered hundreds of fraudulent photos of wood that SUMAL was unable to detect. You can read more about our findings here ([link removed]) .

At a press conference held on the same day our story was published, Romania’s Environment Ministry admitted to “imperfections” in SUMAL — but said they were trying to fix these through a new partnership with Google.

In a pilot test, Google’s Artificial Intelligence platform Vertex AI analyzed all 400,000 timber transports recorded in SUMAL in November 2023 and found that 11,000 out of the total 1.6 million photos uploaded were suspicious, according to the environment minister.


** THE OCCRP NETWORK
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🇿🇦 Mail & Guardian: Our South African member center published an op-ed ([link removed]) about the new political party led by disgraced former President Jacob Zuma, who was at the center of several corruption scandals during his time in office. The author explains how Zuma has exploited ethnic tensions and anti-colonial rhetoric to quickly build a political party that may rival the ruling African National Congress in upcoming elections.

🌎 ICIJ: Our global partner published an investigative series ([link removed]) about the ruling elites of Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy. Reporters obtained more than 890,000 leaked internal records that reveal how the king and his inner circle have enabled suspicious financial transactions and wasteful infrastructure projects.

🇺🇦 Kyiv Independent: Our Ukrainian member center reports on the Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone ([link removed]) , which has reportedly been used by Iran in Israel and Russia in Ukraine.

🇸🇮 Oštro: Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša has smeared our member center ([link removed]) , referring to its editor in chief as “the censor that no one elected” in a press conference on April 2.

The comment was made after Oštro’s fact-checking department refuted claims made by a member of the ruling SDS party that a civic engagement lecture at a local high school was a form of “left-wing propaganda.” This is not the first time Oštro has been targeted by the SDS ([link removed]) .

🇬🇪 Our Georgian Colleagues: Thousands of Georgians gathered outside Georgia’s parliament this week to protest lawmakers’ second attempt at passing the so-called “foreign agent” law, which introduces onerous reporting requirements for media outlets and NGOs that receive money from abroad. Reporters from our network, including our member center iFact, spoke with demonstrators ([link removed]) to get a clear picture of why they object to the bill.
It Takes a Network to Fight a Network.
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** CORRUPTION NEWS
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🇺🇸 United States: The Supreme Court is reportedly likely to limit the scope of a federal anti-corruption statute ([link removed]) that prohibits public officials from receiving gifts from those who benefit from their decisions. They are hearing a case about a mayor in Indiana who accepted $13,000 from a local company after he helped it win city contracts.

The Supreme Court focused on the question of whether the federal law he was convicted under only applies to bribes made before a deal is made, or if it also includes gifts received afterwards as a gesture of gratitude. The majority of justices, who are expected to make a ruling in late June, seemed to agree that the law was too vague to apply to the latter. In the past two years, the Supreme Court has reined in the reach of multiple other federal anti-corruption laws. ([link removed]) [link removed]


** GLOBAL CRIME NEWS
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🇺🇸 United States: The Justice Department filed a complaint against the pharmaceutical company Regeneron for allegedly falsifying its sales prices ([link removed]) for an expensive eye-care product to Medicare, a public health insurance program for the elderly.

Authorities accuse Regneron of inflating the sales price of Eylea, a treatment for macular degeneration, when billing Medicare for reimbursement, potentially costing the government hundreds of millions of dollars.


** SANCTIONS NEWS
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🇪🇺 Europe: The European Court of Justice annulled sanctions ([link removed]) against Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, two businessmen with allegedly close ties to the Kremlin, which were imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In their ruling, the court said that while there may be “proximity” between the duo and the Russian president, the prosecution did not present adequate evidence showing that Aven and Fridman supported the Kremlin’s efforts to destabilize Kyiv.


** TECH IN JOURNALISM NEWS
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Making Data Storage Less Expensive For Journalists: This week, OCCRP helped launch the Journalism Cloud Alliance ([link removed]) , which aims to control the rising costs and constraints of cloud services. The initiative is focused on making data storage and processing capacity more affordable for investigative reporting outlets worldwide.
P.S. Thank you for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply with any feedback.

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