View this email in your browser ([link removed])
[link removed]

September 27, 2024

Greetings from Amsterdam,

This week, we break ground on a decades-old corruption scandal in Kenya thanks to leaked documents from the Pandora Papers, and reveal new evidence of the lengths a U.S. healthcare company appears to have gone to disparage its critics. Plus, OCCRP reporting receives a series of accolades, and we’re sharing two new undercover investigations.


** New Investigations
------------------------------------------------------------


** Suspect in Kenya's Anglo Leasing Scandal Used Offshore Secrecy to Obscure Ties to Companies
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

In the early 2000s, Kenya’s anti-corruption chief named a handful of public officials and businessmen he suspected were involved in a scheme to dramatically inflate government contracts. Anura Perera, a wealthy Sri Lankan businessman, was among them. But Perera’s connection to offshore companies involved in the alleged corruption was never pinned down, and he was never formally charged in Kenya or elsewhere for what became known as the Anglo Leasing Scandal.

Now, newly unearthed corporate documents link Perera to six ([link removed]) of the 13 offshore companies that won these suspicious contracts. The firms were registered in secretive jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands and Delaware that made it difficult for investigators to uncover information about them when the scandal broke.
Our Sources: The documents that show Perera was the owner, director, or signatory of the six firms were found among the Pandora Papers ([link removed]) – millions of files from 14 offshore services providers that were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with partners around the world.

Where did the money go? The six companies linked to Perera had won contracts totalling around $140 million for services including delivering an oceanic vessel, providing broadband equipment and internet to the Kenyan postal service, and building a counter-terrorism center. Some of the payments were disbursed before the scandal was made public, but others were paid later on, after the government lost court cases filed by the offshore companies demanding remuneration.

The leaked records show that during this time, Perera and his family members were beneficiaries of offshore trusts that shifted millions of dollars between themselves and other anonymous companies.

On a single day in 2009, for instance, four shell companies sent a collective $2.5 million to a trust of which Perera’s wife was a beneficiary. The trust then loaned her the same amount — also on the same day. Shortly thereafter, her husband went on a real estate shopping spree in Dubai, data from our Dubai Unlocked project ([link removed]) revealed. And as payments from the Kenyan government for broadband contracts were paid out to Perera’s companies in 2014, another $3 million moved into the family’s trusts.
How it Works: Trusts offer a highly secretive vehicle for hiding assets. Instead of having a shareholder, they are administered by a third party on behalf of beneficiaries. If we hadn’t obtained leaked documents from the Pandora Papers, we’d have no way of knowing that the Pereras were beneficiaries of multiple offshore trusts.

Read the full story ([link removed])

Plus, read more about the global offshore service industry, and how it helps quietly move hundreds of billions of dollars around the world every year. ([link removed])
[link removed]


** Claims About Short-Seller Made in UK Parliament Trace Back to Private Intelligence Firm Hired by Steward Health Care
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Our latest story about the disgraced U.S. healthcare operator Steward reveals what appears to be another plank in the multi-million-dollar smear campaign the company was paying private intelligence firms to carry out against its critics.

Leaked communications obtained by OCCRP provide evidence that Audere International, one of the U.K.-based intelligence firms working for Steward, helped engineer a British politician’s claims that a well-known businessman was actually a Russian agent.

The businessman — Fraser Perring — became one of Steward’s top targets after his short-selling firm published two damning reports into the healthcare operator and its biggest shareholder in early 2023.

Not long after, in March that year, Member of Parliament Liam Byrne stood up in parliament to publicly question whether the short-selling firm was colluding with the Kremlin to undermine British defense, and claimed Perring frequently visited Moscow.

Perring vehemently denied the allegations. Byrne never retracted the claims, but denied he was paid to make the statement.

OCCRP didn’t find evidence that Byrne was paid, or knew the information he shared might be false — but leaked communications and bank transaction records indicate that Audere paid an intermediary to feed Byrne the line of questioning: ex-MI6 intelligence officer Christover Steele.

Why It Matters: As OCCRP previously reported ([link removed]) , the other smear attacks Audere orchestrated against Perring were spread through social media. But, in stark contrast to other areas of public life in the U.K., statements made in Parliament are protected from defamation suits under the principle of parliamentary privilege.

Read the full story ([link removed])

Plus, read our previous coverage of Steward’s controversial past ([link removed])


** ‘Make a Molotov Cocktail’: How Europeans Are Recruited Through Telegram to Commit Sabotage, Arson, and Murder
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Across Europe, young men are being recruited on Telegram to carry out pro-Russia sabotage attacks intended to “cause fear, discontent, and confusion in society.” This might mean spying on a military base, lighting a NATO vehicle on fire or –– for the most audacious recruits –– murder at “$10,000 a head.”

That’s what OCCRP and our reporting partners found when we went undercover to investigate how saboteurs are recruited via Telegram –– the latest example of the shady dealings rampant on the messaging platform, which last month led to the arrest of its Russian founder in France.

After approaching an anonymous Telegram account that calls for action against the West, reporters learned what happens next: Recruiters interrogate them about their military experience, their willingness to take risks, and their ability to pick local targets. They’re also interested in any signs of a criminal background.

According to security specialists and multiple European law enforcement agencies, these are the signs of Russian intelligence at work: As the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine depletes more sophisticated intelligence and security resources, the Russian operators are looking for low-cost amateurs who might never even learn who they’re working for.

The goal of these operations is clear, one expert says: Undermining public support for Ukraine.

Reporting Impact: Since journalists contacted Telegram with their findings, the company announced a crackdown; some of the channels identified by journalists as recruitment avenues were made inaccessible in multiple EU countries.

Read the full story ([link removed])


** The Secretive Supply Chain Sending EU Trucks to Syria
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

The European Union and its member states have imposed some of the world’s heaviest sanctions against Syria since the start of its civil war in 2011. Why then, do videos of Syrian army convoys regularly feature EU-made trucks from brands like Volvo, Mercedes, Scania, and Iveco hauling tanks and other military equipment?

Alongside our Syrian partner SIRAJ we went undercover to investigate, and discovered the existence of a secretive supply chain that moves trucks from the EU to Syria through third countries like Jordan and Lebanon, sometimes involving bribes and falsified paperwork.

In addition to this circuitous route, the trade relies heavily on intermediaries, such as traders and customs brokers, who help avoid any direct sales to Syria or its army.

Yet by looking at the fine print, we also found that exporting trucks to Syria is not explicitly banned by the EU’s sanctions regime — underscoring just how complicated it can get when sanctions are used as a foreign policy tool.

Read the full story ([link removed])


** Sanctioned Cambodian Senator Had Links to Alleged Chinese Crime Figures
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

The U.S. recently sanctioned Ly Yong Phat, an influential Cambodian businessman and longtime senator affiliated with the ruling party, citing alleged links to online scam operations and human trafficking. Now, OCCRP has exclusively reported that the senator’s links to the underworld go even further: He was co-director of a company with two men who have been implicated in major criminal investigations.

One of Ly’s former business partners was involved with a company sanctioned by the U.K. for allegedly running online scam operations staffed by forced labor. The other man is a suspect in a $2.2-billion money laundering investigation in Singapore. One expert says the information uncovered by OCCRP “strengthens the evidence” presented by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Read the full story ([link removed])


** Prosecutor Demands Six Years In Prison For Jailed Kyrgyz Investigative Journalists
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Eleven journalists from Temirov Live – an OCCRP partner in Kyrgyzstan – are facing a possible six-year prison sentence ([link removed]) over allegations of inciting and organizing mass riots, a prosecutor said on Thursday.

The journalists deny the charges, and press freedom groups consider the case to be part of a wider crackdown on free expression.

The group was initially arrested in January during a late-night sweep, after which government officials claimed a “forensic linguistic examination” of social media posts revealed “calls for protests and riots.” An expert hired by the accused found no evidence of this.

Seven other journalists have been released since the initial arrest, but were placed on house arrest or under travel bans. A verdict in the case is expected on October 3.

Read the full story ([link removed])


** Join Us In Greece
------------------------------------------------------------

This week, we’ll be at the iMEdD International Journalism Forum ([link removed]) in Athens from September 26-28. The forum covers key topics such as press freedom, AI, data journalism, climate crisis reporting, corruption, war, and media sustainability. Many journalists from our member centers and reporting partners will be speaking, and OCCRP Co-Founder Paul Radu will speak on two panels: one about sustainable innovation and another about AI and investigative reporting. Registration is free to attend in person.


** OCCRP & Partners Recognized
------------------------------------------------------------

Last month, NarcoFiles: The New Criminal Order ([link removed]) was honored with the Inter American Press Association In-Depth Award ([link removed]) . The collaboration between OCCRP, the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), and 40 media partners was the largest investigative project of its kind to originate in Latin America.

This week, Syria: Addicted to Captagon ([link removed]) , a joint investigation from BBC Eye and OCCRP, took home the DIG Award ([link removed]) for Best Film in the "Investigative Long" category. The reporting uncovered new direct links between the multi-billion dollar Captagon drug trade and senior members of President Bashar al-Assad's family and the Syrian Armed Forces. The jury called it “a thrilling journey into a narco state manufacturing an epidemic across the Middle East.”

Plus, the investigative project Cyprus Confidential ([link removed]) won a Nonprofit News Award for Journalism Collaboration of the Year ([link removed]) . OCCRP was part of the team that worked on Cyprus Confidential, a project led by ICIJ that exposed how Cyprus helped Putin's inner circle shelter billions, fueling Russia’s war on Ukraine. Read OCCRP’s stories from the project here ([link removed]) .
[link removed]
P.S. Thanks for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply to this email with feedback, thoughts, or questions.

============================================================
Copyright © 2024 Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, All rights reserved.
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.
** ([link removed])