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

August 1, 2025
Hello John,
A corruption scandal in Lithuania has felled the country’s Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas, whose opaque finances have been the subject of a series of high-profile investigations by OCCRP’s local member center.

And in Germany, a lawmaker was sentenced over bribes tied to the so-called Azerbaijan Laundromat scheme our network exposed several years ago.

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


** Investigations With Impact
------------------------------------------------------------


** Lithuanian PM Resigns Over Corruption Scandal
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Lithuania’s prime minister Gintautas Paluckas resigned yesterday following a series of scandals prompted by investigations from OCCRP’s member center Siena and the independent broadcaster Laisvės TV.

The reporting, which linked the politician to questionable loans, real estate deals, and offshore companies ([link removed]) , had sparked two criminal investigations and protests calling for Paluckas to step down. In his resignation on Thursday, which came less than a year after he took office, Paluckas called the allegations a “coordinated attack.”

Under Lithuania’s constitution, the entire cabinet must also step down, ushering in a new phase of political uncertainty.

Read the full story → ([link removed])


** As It Happened
------------------------------------------------------------

"Woah, now it’s hitting the fan," thought Siena ([link removed]) editor Šarūnas Černiauskas when he woke up to the news yesterday that law enforcement was raiding a company owned by the prime minister’s sister-in-law, which his team had recently reported on.

Within two hours, the president announced that the prime minister had resigned.

Back in May, Černiauskas had never expected that a “simple story about a soft loan” received by one of the prime minister’s companies would have such a ripple effect.

The loan “didn’t look good — it looked shady and it looked rather dishonest from the prime minister’s side — but to be honest, if he admitted he made a mistake there, that would have been it,” he said. “But he didn’t admit any mistakes, he became aggressive and that kept us going and encouraged us to keep on digging."

From there, the reporting took on a life of its own.

“It was crazy … it was supposed to be a single story — and a simple one — but it evolved into a total of five investigative pieces and one of the biggest scandals my country has ever had.”

Collaboration and Solidarity
Most of the reporting was based on publicly available sources like company records, asset declarations, and freedom of information (FOI) requests, said Černiauskas, who offered two major lessons from the saga:

“Number one: collaboration works. Collaboration is the key,” he said of the partnership with Laisvės TV.

“But also there’s another thing to emphasize: Solidarity. When we managed to get the story going and when the prime minister started ghosting us and dodging our questions, a lot of other media outlets stepped up," he said.

"People started asking questions. People started doing their own investigative work, and that was actually a great catalyst to the entire story. Teamwork, and solidarity! I’ve never felt Lithuanian media to be so united, and that felt just amazing.”
[link removed]


** More OCCRP Reporting
------------------------------------------------------------


** A First in Germany: Ex-MP Convicted in Azerbaijan Scandal
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]

Former German lawmaker Eduard Lintner has been sentenced to a nine-month suspended prison term for bribing public officials on behalf of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian government.

Lintner, the first German lawmaker to be found guilty of such an offense, was implicated in the “Azerbaijani Laundromat ([link removed]) ” — a vast money-laundering and influence-peddling scheme exposed by OCCRP and partners in 2017.

The investigation showed how Azerbaijan’s ruling elite used a $2.9 billion slush fund to line their own pockets — and burnish the country’s image abroad by paying European politicians, including Lintner, in a bid to stave off criticism of their government’s abysmal human rights record.

The 80-year-old lawmaker, who served in the Bundestag for 33 years, pleaded not guilty and maintained throughout the trial that his behaviour was legitimate lobbying driven by “honorable motives.”

Transparency International welcomed ([link removed]) the ruling.

“Authorities in other countries linked to the Azerbaijani Laundromat scheme should follow Germany’s example and take action to ensure that those who took bribes and helped whitewash repression do not escape scrutiny,” said CEO Maíra Martini.

Read the full story → ([link removed])
[link removed]


** Zelensky Reverses Course After EU Pressure and Protests
------------------------------------------------------------

In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenksy signed a law ([link removed]) restoring the independence of two anti-corruption bodies, following public outcry over his earlier attempts ([link removed]) to weaken the agencies and bring them under executive control.

The move came after the European Union slashed its most recent round of financial aid to Ukraine, citing Kyiv’s failure to implement key reforms and concerns over political interference in the anti-corruption agencies investigating the president’s inner circle.

A key point of contention had been the cabinet’s refusal ([link removed]) to appoint seasoned investigator Oleksandr Tsyvinsky to lead the Bureau of Economic Security, the country’s top anti-corruption body. Mounting public pressure and protests appears to have served their purpose, with his candidacy now back on the table ([link removed]) .

Meanwhile, Judge Viktor Maslov of Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court has filed a complaint with the High Council of Justice ([link removed]) , alleging intimidation and interference in his work, including a case involving a businessman accused of bribing a deputy prime minister.


** Jailed Azerbaijani Journalists on Hunger Strike Allege Abuse
------------------------------------------------------------
[link removed]
Three imprisoned Azerbaijani female journalists, who’ve been on hunger strike for over a week, say prison authorities have been restricting their access to water amid “extreme heat.”

Sevinc Vagifgizi, Nargiz Absalamova, and Elnara Gasimova from Abzas Media launched their hunger strike on July 22 in solidarity with their jailed director Ulvi Hasanli, who started an “indefinite” hunger strike two days prior.


"Since we began our hunger strike, water has almost completely been cut off in the facility,” the women said in a statement. “Water is only given for half an hour in the morning and evening. In that short time, 153 women cannot wash themselves, clean their dishes, or fill their empty water containers.”

The women are among six journalists from Abzas who were hit with heavy sentences ([link removed]) in June following a trial that press freedom advocates have condemned as a farce. A relentless crackdown ([link removed]) over the past 18 months has left the country without any semblance of independent media.

Read the full story → ([link removed])


** ‘Gambia Heist’ Whistleblower Speaks
------------------------------------------------------------

In 2019, OCCRP published The Great Gambia Heist ([link removed]) , an investigation which exposed how former dictator Yahya Jammeh and his associates had plundered nearly $1 billion of Gambia’s timber resources and public funds.

Behind the story was a whistleblower: former anti-corruption official Alhaji Mamadi Kurang, who went public earlier this year after what he described as a years-long campaign of legal threats and harassment.

“I am being intimidated to keep me silent on a matter of public interest,” he told OCCRP in a recent interview. “These are powerful people, and they have made my life difficult in many ways for eight years.”

Kurang was a former official in Gambia’s financial crimes commission, which was tasked with investigating Jammeh’s financial dealings. He was formally dismissed in 2018 after reporting alleged potential conflicts of interest, irregularities in evidence handling, and other internal problems among his fellow investigators.

But he says he has continued to face professional isolation, threats and legal pressure — including a brief detention and a $2.4 million defamation lawsuit.
Read the full story → ([link removed])

📞 We want to hear from you!

We’d love to know why you read OCCRP and how you use our reporting. Your feedback helps us improve. Schedule a 15-minute call ([link removed]) with us ([link removed]) .


** News Briefs
------------------------------------------------------------
* Moldova’s President Maia Sandu has warned of Russian interference ([link removed]) , disinformation, and other meddling through covert funding and paid protests ahead of parliamentary elections in September.
* One year on from the fatal police shooting of a Paraguayan congressman, newly obtained documents ([link removed]) have shed light on the politician’s alleged involvement in money laundering.
* An indictment over weapons trafficking from Paraguay to organised crime groups appears not to have hindered the career progression of one federal Brazilian highway police officer: court documents obtained by OCCRP ([link removed]) reveal he received a promotion in January.
* Former owners of Ukraine’s PrivatBank, Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, stole nearly $2 billion from the bank before it was nationalized in 2016, a UK court ruled this week ([link removed]) .


** Recommended Reading
------------------------------------------------------------

Notes From A Small Island: Former OCCRP Pacific Editor Bernadette Carreon isfeatured in the Global Investigative Journalism Network’s “10 Questions” series ([link removed]) .

When asked about her favorite investigation she worked on during her time at OCCRP, she mentioned Pacific Gambit: Inside the Chinese Communist Party and Triad Push into Palau ([link removed]) .

“When I was working with the OCCRP, I relied a lot on [OCCRP's] Aleph tool ([link removed]) — a great database on public information with a large dataset," she said.
[link removed]
P.S. Thank for for reading! Got feedback? Simply reply to this email.

============================================================
** ([link removed])
Copyright © 2025 Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, All rights reserved.
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)
Too many emails? ** Choose which emails you want from us ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from all OCCRP emails ([link removed])