May 23, 2025

Hello John,

This week we bring you inside Pravfond, a Russian legal aid foundation that has been collaborating with spies, funding propaganda efforts, and paying for influence operations around the world — despite being sanctioned by the EU.

This latest investigative project, “Dear Compatriots,” is based on thousands of internal emails obtained by journalists at the Danish broadcaster DR and shared with OCCRP and partners. 

In other news, Sierra Leone’s First Lady has refused to answer questions we raised earlier this month about her new portfolio of luxury properties — but she has gone on to make false statements about OCCRP. 

And Madrid was rocked Wednesday by the brazen murder of a former adviser to Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president. The killing was the latest in a string of violent incidents in Spain involving individuals connected to Russia and Ukraine since the outbreak of full-scale war in 2022. 

Read on for the latest in global crime and corruption.

New Investigations

The state-backed Russian foundation known as Pravfond started operating in 2012 with the stated goal of defending the rights of Russians abroad, primarily by offering assistance if they get into legal trouble. 

But a tranche of internal emails obtained by journalists reveals how the organization has been used as a tool to advance Kremlin interests around the world, including by paying for the legal defense of spies and funding propaganda. The investigation was carried out by OCCRP and 29 partner organisations.

OCCRP Senior Editor Ilya Lozovsky said that the true scope of Pravfond’s operations gradually became clear as reporters sifted through thousands of emails.

“I was surprised at the extent of the propaganda work it did, because Pravfond’s stated goal is to give people grants to help them pay for legal assistance,” said Lozovsky.

The emails also revealed the global reach of the organization. Though it focused on countries like Latvia and Lithuania, with high numbers of Russian “compatriots” to assist, it also reached as far afield as Australia, where it provided support to a prominent pro-Russian activist who refers to himself as the “Aussie Cossack.” Simeon Boikov is in hiding in the Russian consulate in Sydney after being convicted of assaulting an elderly Ukraine supporter in 2022.  (Read OCCRP partner ABC Australia’s report on Boikov here to find out how Pravfond helped him.)

Pravond was hit with EU sanctions in 2023, but that did not stop the flow of money, the emails show.

“Pravfond has been under sanctions for almost 2 years but it has continued to operate quite freely inside the EU,” said OCCRP editor Holger Roonemaa, who helped coordinate the project. “That's an issue of really bad sanctions policing in the EU and total lack of uniformed approach to sanctions implementation.”  

More OCCRP Reporting

Earlier this month, we published an investigation exposing the property holdings of Sierra Leone’s  first lady Fatima Bio and her close relatives.

Our reporters found a series of investments — totaling at least $2.1 million — were made following the ascent of Bio’s husband to the presidency in 2018, raising questions about the sources of this newfound wealth.

Shortly after the investigation was published, Bio took to Facebook to denounce our reporting, and later published a video in which she said she owed “no explanation.”

She also falsely accused OCCRP of giving her only 24 hours to respond to queries, even though her video included a screenshot of the email sent to her ahead of publication showing she was asked to respond within nine days.

Read the full story →

Ukrainian Ex-Yanukovych Aide Shot Dead in Madrid

Spanish authorities are investigating the assassination of Andriy Portnov, a former Ukrainian politician who was shot dead in broad daylight on Wednesday morning in a wealthy suburb of Madrid.

Several unidentified assailants opened fire on Portnov, who was once adviser to Ukraine's ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, after he dropped off his children outside the prestigious American School of Madrid. 

Portnov was a polarizing figure in Ukrainian politics. As reported by our Ukrainian partner Kyiv Independent, he was widely seen as “the architect of Ukraine's judiciary, corrupt and unreformed,” and someone who "attacked everyone who dared to speak out.”

Sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2021, Portnov had reportedly obtained Russian citizenship in 2014 and had been living in Spain with his family.

Read the full story →

More OCCRP Reporting

• A court in the southern Chinese city of Nanning this week handed a death sentence to a former senior national political adviser for accepting bribes. The suspended sentence grants him a two-year stay of execution, and will be automatically commuted to life imprisonment provided he commits no further crimes.

• An Interpol arrest warrant has been issued for Finnish fugitive Arto Kalevi Autio, who fled fraud charges linked to a scheme that diverted millions from Finland’s Youth Foundation. Finnish authorities have until the end of the year until the statute of limitations expires.  

• Bosnian police arrested 18 people on Monday in a crackdown on a network accused of smuggling migrants into the European Union through the Balkans. 

• A yearlong international crackdown on the trafficking of antiquities and artifacts has led to 80 arrests and the recovery of nearly 38,000 stolen items, including ancient coins, artwork,s and archaeological treasures, Europol announced this week.  

• The European Parliament this week raised tariffs on Russian and Belarusian agricultural goods and fertilizers, with a 50% hike imposed on products such as sugar, vinegar, flour, and animal feed. 

• French authorities have warned of the risk of “thumb phones”, miniature mobile phones which evade detection by prison security screening and enable inmates to coordinate crimes while serving time.  

Events

Organized Crime: Corruption, Financial Networks & Policy Responses
How is organized crime operating across the Pacific? 

Next week, OCCRP’s South Pacific Editor OCCRP Australia and Pacific Region Editor Aubrey Belford will join a Transparency International webinar to discuss investigative journalism in the region.

Date: Wednesday, May 28
Time: 10:30am-12:00pm (Fiji / NZ Time)

Register here 

In Case You Missed It
An investigation from Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Gecko Project, and partners recently exposed that the Harita Group — one of the world’s major nickel suppliers — knew for years that its operations on Obi Island were polluting water with a toxic chemical, chromium-6.

Hear directly from the journalists behind the story as well as frontline voices from the community.

Watch the webinar →