July 25, 2025

Hello John,

This week, we’ve mapped out the ecosystem of tech products and other service providers underpinning the lucrative grifts revealed in Scam Empire — our major investigation into two global scam operations.

Read on for this, and the latest in global organized crime and corruption.

New Investigations

The massive data leak that formed the basis of Scam Empire took us inside sophisticated call centers where agents rake in millions by peddling fake investment products. 

It also revealed a broader group of service providers that make this type of theft possible.

For instance, identifying victims was outsourced to affiliate marketing firms; making the calls that would coax and ultimately dupe them was done through VoIP operators; and a network of underground payment service providers — as well as wire transfer companies — were used to whisk the money away.

We decided to map out this largely online infrastructure, and to name the companies involved.

“We’ve been covering organised groups of scammers for years, but this project made it clear that they don’t act in a vacuum,” says Deputy Editor in Chief Julia Wallace.

“Instead, they draw on an entire ecosystem of service providers — some catering exclusively to scammers — that make this type of theft possible. One of the main goals in the Scam Empire project was to pull back the curtain on this broader scam ecosystem.” 

The extent to which these companies were aware of how their services were being abused was not always clear. Some say they were unknowingly exploited by the scammers, while others offered services that appeared purpose-built. All, however, stood to make a profit. 

Read the full story →

More OCCRP Reporting

Among the early investors of the Kempinski Hotel & Residences on Dubai’s artificial Palm Jumeirah archipelago was Virginia Invest & Finance — a company owned by Dmitry Klyuev, the alleged mastermind of a massive $230 million Russian tax fraud known as the Magnitsky Affair.

Records obtained by OCCRP indicate Klyuev invested $15 million in Kempinski resorts in Dubai in 2009, purchases made after Virginia Invest & Finance received millions of dollars from two companies involved in processing funds from Magnitsky tax fraud.

This raises questions over whether the real estate investments could have been funded with money connected to the affair.

Read the full story → 

Moldovan Tycoon Nabbed in Greece While Trying to Flee

After years on the run, Moldovan tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc and former lawmaker Constantin Țuțu were arrested last weekend at Athens International Airport while allegedly trying to flee to Dubai using false identities.

Plahotniuc, once one of Moldova’s most powerful political figures,  is wanted for allegedly creating and leading a criminal organization, as well as fraud and large-scale money laundering linked to the so-called “Billion Dollar Bank Fraud” that drained the country’s financial system between 2013 and 2015. Moldova is expected to request his extradition. Țuțu was detained on a separate Interpol alert at Russia’s request.

According to Greek police and documents obtained by OCCRP partner RISE Moldova, the pair were intercepted shortly after arriving at the airport, carrying backpacks, false identity documents from Bulgaria and Romania, cash, and electronic devices.  

The pair had been staying at a luxury villa in Saronida, south of Athens, rented by Plahotniuc. A search of the villa yielded more than €155,000 cash, 17 fake IDs/passports, encrypted devices, high-end electronics, luxury watches, and an SUV.
 
Read the full story →

Fugitive Secretly Owned Colombian Concert Company

Sebastián Marset, a fugitive wanted by the U.S. and Paraguay for allegedly running a global cocaine ring, owned 85 percent of a Colombian entertainment company, reporters have found.

The company was almost identical in name to a Paraguayan firm that he is alleged to have used to launder drug money. 

A Paraguayan judge told OCCRP authorities were not previously aware of this connection, and that the Colombian firm may also have been part of the laundering network.

Marset, who allegedly portrayed himself as a show business entrepreneur as part of a cover for his illegal businesses, has so far evaded capture, with the U.S. offering $2 million for information leading to his arrest.

Read the full story →  

Journalists set out to find a secret airstrip built by narcotraffickers in the Paraguayan wilderness.

Here’s what they found →  

News Briefs

• Independent Georgian media outlet Batumelebi/Netgazeti says its bank accounts have been frozen as part of a renewed pressure from authorities amid the trial of its founder Mzia Amaghlobeli.
  

• Journalists have obtained documents showing that Paraguayan authorities were investigating a businessman-turned-Congressman for years before he was shot dead during a police raid on his home last year. He and his son had just been charged with money laundering and criminal association. 
  

• A freelance journalist who previously interned with OCCRP’s Kyrgyz partner Kloop was detained and interrogated at Bishkek airport on Sunday, in what appears to be the latest episode in Kyrgyzstan’s widening crackdown on independent media. 
  

• Northern Cyprus appears set to at least double the number of casinos in its territory, raising concerns about its potential to become a hub for money laundering.   
  

• The United Kingdom has sanctioned suspected Balkan criminals and gangs involved in smuggling and passport fraud. The move comes shortly after OCCRP’s Bosnian member center CIN exposed how international fugitives had obtained genuine Bosnian passports using stolen identities.

Announcements

Belarusian Investigative Center founder Stanislau Ivashkevich is the 2025 winner of the ICFJ Hans Staiger Investigative Reporting Award.

Ivashkevich led a collaborative investigation that exposed Belarus' covert medical care to nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers, including alleged war criminals.

The award is given to a journalist in the OCCRP network and was established in honor of Hans Staiger, a longtime BBC reporter and editor, and ICFJ media development consultant who worked closely with OCCRP.

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