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March 29, 2025

Greetings from Amsterdam,

This week we reveal how major Western banks helped funnel billions in foreign currency into Russia in the run-up to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The findings shed light on how the Kremlin and its cronies battened the hatches in anticipation of sanctions and international backlash.

Meanwhile in Turkey, corruption allegations have been used to jail Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and the biggest political threat to president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

And the ripple effect from our Scam Empire investigation continues ([link removed]) , with Swedish telecom giant Ericsson having dropped a customer who provided scammers with communications technology.

Finally, OCCRP has been accused by a far-right German politician in the European Parliament of posing a threat to the bloc’s democratic processes.

Read on for more.


** OCCRP Exclusive
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** Bankrolling An Invasion: How Western Banks Facilitated
Multi-Billion-Dollar Transfers On Eve Of Ukraine War
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Protestors gathered (http://) outside the Vienna headquarters of Raiffeisen Bank International this week, as shareholders convened for their annual general meeting, to demand that the bank halt its operations in Russia.

This comes in the wake of a new analysis of trade data by OCCRP and Paper Trail Media, which shows that the Austrian bank and other western institutions facilitated hundreds of shipments of U.S. dollars, euros, and Swiss francs to Russia in early 2022.

In total, over $12 billion in foreign currency was transferred to Russia between January 11 and its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The transfers were legal — restrictions and sanctions only came later. However, an expert said they should have raised red flags. The cash influx could have been an effort to insulate Russia’s economy against the coming fallout or to help fund the invasion.

The cash was received by the Moscow importer-exporter TBSS, which shares headquarters with Russian government entities including the customs authority and has since been sanctioned by the U.S.

Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International sent $10 billion across 189 shipments, making it the largest contributor, while U.S. cash-handling company Brink’s moved $1.3 billion in 64 shipments. Bank of America sent $798 million in five shipments.

These shipments dwarfed figures from previous years: the amount transferred during the pre-invasion period we examined was triple the average shipment size from 2017 to 2021. Weeks after the invasion, the E.U. and U.S. outlawed the export of euros and dollars to Russia.

“Foreign currency in cash is always helpful in a war, especially since the attack on Ukraine was expected weeks in advance,” Janis Kluge from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a think tank linked to the government, told OCCRP.

Read the full story ([link removed])


** Upcoming Event
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** More OCCRP Reporting
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** Libya Detains Alleged Traffickers Accused Of Torture
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Four suspected human traffickers have been arrested in Libya over alleged ties to a migrant smuggling network that held and tortured 164 migrants, leading to 10 deaths.

The suspects filmed their brutal assaults on migrants from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, and reportedly used to blackmail the migrants’ families into paying ransom.

According to investigators, 71 of the detained migrants were forced to pay $10,000 each in exchange for their release.

This raid is the latest move in the Libyan government's crackdown on migrant smuggling, which follows the discovery of two mass graves ([link removed]) in February.

Read the full story ([link removed]) →


** Proposed Law Would Attract Dirty Money, Critics Warn
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In northern Cyprus, a draft law has raised concerns that the enclave could turn into a money laundering hub.

The law, which was discussed earlier this week by the Turkish Cypriot assembly, would open a path to bring international funds into local banks, with few questions asked.

It would then be possible to transfer funds out of northern Cyprus via intermediary banks in Turkey, which one economist warns could introduce “questionable money” into the international financial system.

Read the full story ([link removed]) →


** Mexico Arrests Former Police Linked to Cartel Torture Site
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Mexican authorities have arrested two former police officers and a cartel recruiter in relation to an alleged torture and training site, where human remains were discovered earlier this month.

A police raid in September had classified the Izaguirre ranch, in the western state of Jalisco, as a training center for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

But it was a group of relatives searching for missing persons, known as the Warrior Searchers of Jalisco, who reportedly uncovered more than 200 pairs of shoes, burned human remains, charred bones, and incinerators used to dispose of victims at the site earlier this month.

Jalisco has the highest number of missing persons in Mexico, with more than 15,000 people listed as disappeared.

Read the full story ([link removed]) →


** Far-Right German Politician Targets OCCRP
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In comments to the European Parliament, far-right German politician Petr Bystron took aim at OCCRP and other non-profits who have previously received U.S. funding, characterizing them as potential threats to E.U. “democratic processes”.

Bystron is currently facing two investigations in Germany, including a criminal investigation into images he posted online that appear to show politicians giving Nazi salutes. He has also faced a probe into allegations of money laundering and receiving bribes when he was a member of the German parliament.

The European Parliament is set to decide whether to strip him of immunity, which would allow the investigations to continue.

Due to receiving some funding from the U.S. government — which was halted by the administration of President Donald Trump — OCCRP has been subjected to similar accusations before. A recent smear campaign ([link removed]) accused OCCRP of being a tool of the “deep state,” even though donors have no influence ([link removed]) at all over editorial decisions.

Read the full story ([link removed]) →


** ⚡︎ Making A Difference
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OCCRP's Scam Empire investigation continues to have an impact.

Swedish telecom giant
Ericsson confirms it dropped (http://) a client firm that provided communications technology to the scam operations exposed in the leak.

Israeli firm Coperato is one of several companies the call centers paid for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, which allow users to make calls over the internet. While the technology has many legitimate uses, its ability to spoof the caller's place of origin, by altering the country code, has been a boon to scammers.

Ericsson's decision is the latest example of accountability arising from our reporting, and comes after Georgian authorities announced (http://) they would launch a criminal investigation into the Tbilisi-based call center we exposed.


** News In Brief
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* Press advocacy groups are calling for the immediate release ([link removed]) of two journalists in Burkina Faso, who were detained days after they criticized the country’s deteriorating media landscape.

* Authorities in seven African countries have arrested 306 people and seized 1,842 devices in a coordinated cross-border cybercrime crackdown, according to Interpol.

* Over 1100 people have been detained ([link removed]) by authorities in Turkey, as protests continue around the country following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on corruption charges — a move which is widely seen as politically motivated.

* Romanian authorities conducted over 60 raids ([link removed]) earlier this week, detaining 15 suspected of involvement in an organized crime network which embezzled funds from a renewable energy project. The group allegedly laundered over $14 million through cryptocurrency transactions.

* Shares in Russian agricultural giant Rusagro plummeted by 30 percent this week after authorities arrested ([link removed]) the company’s owner over alleged embezzlement.

* U.S. authorities in Virginia have arrested (http://) a man they claim is a top-three leader of the MS-13 gang. The 24-year-old man was detained in Virginia, and is said to have been in the country illegally.

* Scamma-mia! An elderly Italian woman turned the table on would-be scammers in Sicily this week, leading to two arrests ([link removed]) .


** In Case You Missed It
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This week, OCCRP editors Laura Mannering and Ilya Lozovsky joined Swedish Television (SVT) journalist Björn Tunbäck to answer reader questions about the Scam Empire investigation.

See the discussion over on Reddit’s r/Europe ([link removed]) .


** Recommended Reading
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Altered States: How Dictators Use Illicit Wealth To Consolidate Power
The Signal and the Human Rights Foundation teamed up to publish Altered States ([link removed]) , a special edition which exposes how dictators use illicit wealth and influence to weaken democracy and consolidate power.

OCCRP Editor in Chief Miranda Patrucic (http://) wrote a piece examining why dictators keep disrupting so many other countries ([link removed]) .

Our readers can sign up here ([link removed]) for a free one-month trial for The Signal.

Turkey's Democracy On The Brink
“With the most popular rival of [Turkish President] Recep Tayyip Erdoğan now in prison, the arrest of hundreds of others in investigations against the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and rumors circulating that the government may seek to even take over the party, Turkey is on the cusp of a transition to a consolidated dictatorship”, writes (http://) Nate Schenkkan, Senior Director of Research for Freedom House's work on countering authoritarianism, in an opinion piece for Turkey Recap (http://) .
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P.S. Thank you for reading OCCRP Weekly. Feedback? Simply reply.

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