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September 19, 2025
Hello John,
For private equity firms, healthcare organizations are financial assets to be bought and sold — as one expert put it, “completely divorced from the human care mission of healthcare organizations.”

This week, we look at the predatory practices of real estate investment firm Medical Properties Trust, linked to the downfall of two major healthcare operators in the United States.

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

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** Investigation
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** Quack Cure: Private Equity ‘Lifeline’ Tied To Failure of Second U.S. Hospital Operator
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For private equity firms, healthcare organizations are financial assets to be bought and sold — “completely divorced from the human care mission of healthcare organizations,” as one expert put it.

Real estate investment firm Medical Properties Trust (MPT) was linked to the dramatic 2024 failure of Texas-based healthcare giant Steward Health Care, which crumbled amid allegations of fraud, bribery, and corporate espionage ([link removed]) — a saga which has been the subject of an investigative collaboration ([link removed]) between OCCRP and the Boston Globe.

MPT bought hospital buildings and other real estate belonging to the faltering healthcare firm, then began charging exorbitant rents for the spaces, exacerbating Steward’s financial woes. For MPT, this high rental income told a positive story on paper to investors and drove up its stock price.

Now OCCRP has discovered that, while Steward floundered and struggled to meet its debt obligations, MPT executives arranged a similar scheme with another U.S. hospital company, Prospect Medical Holdings.

Read the full story → ([link removed])
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** More OCCRP Reporting
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** Justice on the Horizon? Bulgaria Arrests Lessee of Vessel
At Root Of Deadly Beirut Port Blast
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The leaseholder of the MV Rhosus — the decrepit ship that carried more than 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to the Beirut port, where it detonated in August 2020 killing at least 218 people — was detained earlier this month in Bulgaria, upon arrival from Cyprus.

Russian national Igor Grechushkin’s detention comes nearly five years after an investigating judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

OCCRP editor Aubrey Belford coordinated OCCRP's investigation ([link removed]) into the blast from Kyiv, where he was based at the time, working with over 20 reporters around the world.

The story was truly global in nature — a Moldovan-flagged, Cypriot-owned, Panama-registered ship carrying Georgian ammonium nitrate to Mozambique, manned by a Russian captain, with a Russian and Ukrainian crew — and injected a contrast dye into the murky world of “obscure, offshore structures, shell companies, the loopholes, the dark places, international shipping,” Belford said.

“It is an incredibly complex and opaque world that facilitates corruption with really deadly consequences.”

Five years on from the blast, a long-stalled domestic probe is showing signs of life ([link removed]) . This week, Lebanese Minister of Justice Adel Nassar told OCCRP’s Lebanese media partner Daraj that the investigation is “moving forward seriously and quickly ([link removed]) .”

“With the explosion, that was this really dramatic manifestation of the systemic issues,” Belford said. “This story is not just something that helps explain what happened in Beirut, but also helps explain a lot of broader problems.”

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** Despite Ban, Toxic Agrochemicals Entered Nigeria
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In Nigeria, herbicides atrazine and paraquat are prohibited due to concerns about their impact on health and the environment.

But despite these bans, inconsistent enforcement has allowed the shipment of millions of dollars’ worth of the chemicals into the country.

OCCRP reporters found that 37 shipments of atrazine and paraquat arrived at major Nigerian ports in 2024, after the ban on both herbicides came into effect. Most were imported by two subsidiaries of local Chinese companies.

“[The importers] don’t care about the consequence or implication on the citizens,” said Mohammed Yahaya, professor of Agricultural Extension at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan.

Read the full story → ([link removed])


** ‘Tinder Swindler’ Detained In Georgia
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An Israeli man whose alleged romance scams are the subject of a popular Netflix documentary has been detained upon arrival at Georgia’s Batumi airport on an Interpol notice issued at Germany’s request.

Shimon Hayut, 34, stands accused of conning a Berlin woman out of tens of thousands of euros. According to Interpol documents obtained by OCCRP, German authorities allege that between 2017 and 2019, Hayut convinced a woman to cover his phone, credit card, and travel expenses — totalling nearly 44,000 euros ($52,000).

He was arrested by Georgian authorities on Sunday morning upon arriving at Batumi International Airport, and can be held for up to three months pending possible extradition proceedings.

Women interviewed for the 2022 Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler claimed Hayut wooed them by posing as the son of a diamond magnate, then feigned personal crises to persuade them to open credit lines or provide loans, before disappearing; Hayut’s lawyer Sagiv Rotenberg told OCCRP that his client denies all allegations.

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


** ‘Kloop’s Ex-Employees Convicted in Kyrgyz Media Crackdown
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Two journalists formerly employed by Kyrgyz investigative outlet Kloop, an OCCRP member center, were this week sentenced to five years in prison.

In addition, two former Kloop accountants were put on three years’ probation. All four had been charged with conspiring to “incite mass unrest.”

This court action comes amid a broadening crackdown ([link removed]) on investigative journalism in the country.

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


** OCCRP Video
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** The Journalist and the Narco: An Interview Behind Bars
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In one of the more daring moments of her career in investigative journalism, OCCRP’s Central Europe editor Pavla Holcova ([link removed]) talked her way into a maximum security prison in Peru to speak ([link removed]) with the second-in-command of the Group America cartel ([link removed]) , Zoran Jaksić.

The criminal group, with roots in New York and the Balkans, was considered one of Europe’s top drug trafficking organizations at the time.

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** News Briefs
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* Nepal this week began the swearing-in of new ministers ([link removed]) in the capital of Kathmandu, following youth-led mass protests that toppled the government.
* In Lebanon, as parliament resumes debate on a new media law, media and civil society groups this week urged lawmakers to ensure the legislation protects ([link removed]) , rather than curbs, freedom of expression.
* A female property appraiser accused of helping officials in western Ukraine sell communal land for a fraction of its real value has been extradited from Germany ([link removed]) and handed over to Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
* U.K. authorities have jailed the suspected ringleaders of a plot ([link removed]) that initially planned to smuggle 600 kilos of cocaine across the Atlantic on a yacht competing in a sailing race.
* Two men in California’s San Fernando Valley have been charged with running a $611 million scheme ([link removed]) to export fraudulently obtained consumer electronics and gift cards.
* Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro ([link removed]) of attempting to abolish the democratic state, leading an armed criminal organization and other crimes tied to a failed coup plot following his 2022 election defeat.
* A record 297 million methamphetamine tablets, along with other narcotics with a combined street value estimated at $6.5 billion have been seized in a two-week Interpol-led crackdown ([link removed]) in 18 countries in Asia and North America.
* Romanian authorities are investigating employees ([link removed]) of the local subsidiary of Austria’s HS Timber Group for allegedly failing to pay $8 million in taxes on sales of undeclared lumber.
* The International Court of Justice last weekdismissed Equatorial Guinea’s request ([link removed]) to stop France from selling a luxury Paris mansion, in a long-running legal saga ([link removed]) over property confiscated from former Vice President Teodorín Obiang, who was convicted in 2017 of embezzling and laundering at least $174 million in public funds.
* The son of a top Russian state corporation and former government official told a Spanish prosecutor he had “nothing to hide” ([link removed]) after being detained in Girona in July, as authorities probe millions in real estate deals allegedly tied to offshore networks uncovered in OCCRP’s Troika Laundromat investigation ([link removed]) .
* Georgian authorities announced this week that the founder of currency exchange Fin has been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention ([link removed]) , accused of laundering more than $660 million.

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