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Greetings From Amsterdam,
Few mining magnates have more international notoriety than Beny Steinmetz, the Israeli businessman at the center of our new investigative series.
In other investigative news, our Ukrainian member center made a powerful documentary about Russian soldiers accused of sexual violence in Ukraine.
But before we share these stories, we want to make sure everyone knows about our upcoming OCCRP Discussion, “The Global Reach of the ‘Ndrangheta: Investigating Italy’s Most Powerful Mafia,” on Thursday, June 27. This webinar is perfect for anyone who’s interested in how modern mafia groups operate internationally. You can join these events by making a donation to OCCRP.
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If you already have an active OCCRP membership, but have not received a registration link, please let us know in a reply to this newsletter.
Now, for the latest in global crime and corruption. This is OCCRP Weekly.
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⛏️ THE STEINMETZ SCANDALS
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Beny Steinmetz is an Israeli mining tycoon who developed a taste for acquiring natural resources cheaply — and a willingness to deal with dictators and corrupt rulers to make that happen.
“We invest in difficult places,” he told the Financial Times in 2012. “You have to get your hands dirty.”
But his penchant for high-risk deals has left him trying to fight off two criminal convictions: one in Switzerland for bribery; and another in Romania, for forming “an organized criminal group” in a disputed land deal. Steinmetz denies any wrongdoing.
This week, OCCRP revealed a series of business deals that ended up helping Steinmetz during these protracted legal fights. These deals were with companies owned by Greek businessman Sabby Mionis.
Both Mionis and Steinmetz say the deals were at arm’s length. OCCRP investigated.
>> Read the full story
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🇺🇦 Ukrainian Women Share Their Accounts of Rape by Russian Forces, As Reporters Investigate Their Assailants
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Our Ukrainian member center Kyiv Independent made a documentary that seeks to shine a light on sexual violence by Russian forces in Ukraine and to hold those responsible to account.
Reporters used testimony from two women as well as witness statements from villagers and military personnel to build a picture of the soldiers who committed the alleged rapes. They also identified the soldiers’ unit commanders, both of whom have gone on to be decorated by the Russian state. Their findings have been shared with investigators in Ukraine and abroad.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office has recorded almost 300 cases of sexual violence since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
>> Read the full story
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🇧🇦 Leaked Report Highlights Pollution Problems at ArcelorMittal’s Bosnian Steelworks
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Locals rarely celebrate the closure of a big employer. But some in the central Bosnian town of Zenica rejoiced recently when the steel giant ArcelorMittal S.A. announced it was shutting down a major part of its sprawling, socialist-era plant.
Residents have long blamed pollution on ArcelorMittal, which has its global headquarters in Luxembourg and is an official sponsor of this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
A Bosnia-Herzegovina government inspection report obtained by OCCRP provides evidence supporting their claims. The 2023 report from the federal Ministry of Environment shows the company for years neglected to implement recommended measures against pollution.
>> Read the full story
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Join Our Newsroom. Support OCCRP.
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🏆 Rana Sabbagh: Our Middle East and North Africa Editor has won the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) Knight Trailblazer Award, a prize that recognizes pioneers in the media industry, particularly in regions where press freedom is restricted.
Rana has spent more than four decades cultivating a vibrant investigative reporting culture in the MENA region. The award ceremony will be held in Washington, D.C. on November 14.
🇰🇬 Temirov Live: A Kyrgyz court ordered that four reporters from our media partner remain in pre-trial detention until August 8, increasing their time behind bars to nearly seven months.
Kyrgyz authorities began to target our colleagues at Temirov Live after they investigated the family of a security official. You can learn more about the plight of these reporters here, as well as how we’ve continued their unfinished work.
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🇲🇩 Moldova: Authorities detained four public officials for allegedly accepting bribes from people with Interpol Red Notices issued against them. Four officials are accused of helping multiple individuals escape international arrest warrants by offering them refuge in Moldova, or deleting their Red Notices altogether.
🇩🇪 Germany: Prosecutors have dropped their investigation into real estate deals by Ajmal Rahmani, a former Afghan politician who says the decision strengthens his lawsuit against the U.S. government, which sanctioned him for alleged corruption.
Details about some of Rahmani's business dealings in Germany were exposed by OCCRP in May. In our investigative series Dubai Unlocked, reporters showed how his Cypriot passport — which he bought under the EU country's now-defunct citizenship-by-investment scheme — helped him acquire assets in Germany as well as the UAE.
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🇻🇪 Meet ‘Tren de Aragua’: A pervasive gang believed to originate from a Venezuelan prison, now has a presence in six U.S. states, according to a new CNN documentary.
The film is part of NarcoFiles, our 2023 investigative project based on more than seven million leaked emails from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office.
🇺🇸 U.S. Moves Against BEC: “Business email compromise” schemes are becoming more prevalent in the United States, where an estimated $8 million is lost every day to such scams. BEC attacks are a type of cybercrime where fraudsters send emails to trick someone into sending money, typically via wire transfer.
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💼 The International Anti-Corruption Conference: Journalists expose corruption. Civil society organizations act upon their reporting. This synergy will be on full display next week in Vilnius, Lithuania at the International Anti-Corruption Conference, where world leaders, civil society, the business community, and investigative journalists come together to talk about the fight against corruption.
Several of our colleagues will be speaking at IACC, including Alexandra Gillies, the director of the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium (GACC), an initiative led by OCCRP and Transparency International that also works to connect journalism with civil society. Gillies will participate in a panel on how leaked data can be used in anti-corruption research.
Transparency International is also a co-organizer of IACC along with the IACC Council.
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P.S. Thank you for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply with any feedback.
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