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January 16, 2026
Hello John,
Behind the veil of a near-total internet blackout, the Iranian regime is deploying brutal force against a massive popular uprising.

The few videos and phone calls that have emerged attest to the scale of both the protests and the repression. There is talk of thousands — and perhaps tens of thousands — of victims.

The Islamic Republic has been rocked by at least three major waves of protest in the last two decades. But this wave, sparked by a collapsing currency and rising prices, looks like its largest challenge yet.

And it’s not just “the people vs. the Ayatollahs.” At its heart, the incipient revolution is about how corruption, rent-seeking, and nepotism has destroyed the Iranian economy.

A class of elites has grown around the state: the Revolutionary Guards’ business empire, clerical networks, quasi-state foundations (bonyads), and regime-connected technocrats. Iranians are not blind to how these insiders have captured assets and opportunities at the expense of everyone else.

Mahtab Divsalar, OCCRP’s senior editor on Iran, managed to reach several protesters by phone. “I asked them, specifically, why are you out there?” she says.

“It’s the high prices, the mismanagement, and the incompetence. And that the wealth of the country is only in the hands of this small group of people.”

Divsalar points to privatization as a case study. In practice, she says, it means handing assets like auto manufacturers, petrochemical plants, and even insurance companies to “semi-state entities, the cronies and their families, rather than the genuine private sector.”

Nepotism then extends the injustice, with aghazadeh — the children of powerful officials — winning contracts, loans, and jobs without merit. The lucrative business of evading sanctions also creates channels for illicit fortunes.

In that frame, corruption — and not geopolitical questions or even religious freedom — is the Iranian people’s central grievance.

The analysis above is a free preview of our upcoming OCCRP PRO membership, a new offering tailored to professionals who rely on our investigations for work in finance, law, compliance, risk management, policy, and related fields. Interested to learn more? Let us know and tell us what you need! ([link removed]) Your feedback will directly shape the services we build.


** OCCRP Scoop
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** Delicensed Doctor Moved Country And Performed ‘Grossly Negligent’ Surgery As Oversight Systems Failed
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In November 2024, Thomas Gölkel underwent ankle surgery in Germany, which left him in constant pain and requiring follow-up procedures.

When Gölkel sought an expert opinion on his case, a statutory health insurance company expert found that his tendons had been "erroneously fixed with a suture" and the procedure as a whole had been "grossly negligent.”

Gölkel’s surgeon, Jerlan Omarchanov, had had his medical license revoked in Norway in 2021, after the health board reviewed his treatment of eight patients, and alleged he had exposed them “to a disproportionate risk” and caused “irreversible harm to many of them.”

However, he maintained his license in Germany and continued to practice despite multiple warnings. Norwegian authorities had flagged his license revocation in a European alert system, and had also alerted the German embassy in Oslo.

The fact that Omarchanov was still practicing in Germany despite his history of botched surgeries in Norway was uncovered by reporters during last year’s cross-border Bad Practice investigation ([link removed]) , which saw OCCRP and media partners identify more than 100 doctors who lost their licenses for serious wrongdoing in one jurisdiction, but held or obtained a license in another.

Read the full story → ([link removed])

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** More OCCRP Reporting
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** Cyprus First Lady and a Top Aide to the President Resign After Leaked Video Scandal
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A leaked video has caused a major political scandal for the presidency of Nikos Christodoulides in Cyprus, with his wife and brother-in-law resigning from public roles.

The video appears to show discussions about skirting campaign finance limits and allowing a state-created student aid charity, where the president’s wife was director, to be used as a conduit for accessing powerful officials.

First lady Philippa Karsera Christodoulides stepped down as chair of the Independent Social Support Body charity following the video leak.

Top aide and brother-in-law of the president, Charalambos Charalambous, resigned as director of the president’s office after the eight-minute video, posted on X by an unidentified account, appeared to show him and former government minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis discussing presidential campaign financing and preferential access to officials with foreign investors.

The video suggests efforts to bypass Cyprus’s statutory campaign spending cap, including through the use of cash contributions.

“In the elections they have a cap of about one million,” former energy minister Lakkotrypis appears to say. “So sometimes they have to depend on cash to be able to go above that budget.”

The footage also features the chief executive of construction company Cyfield who claims that donating hundreds of thousands of euros to the Independent Social Support Body afforded him “close and easy access” to the president.

First lady Christodoulides had chaired the body’s governing committee since March 2023, shortly after her husband was elected. The fresh controversy around the video has revived scrutiny of the charity’s finances.

Police are investigating the video’s origin and authenticity, and the attorney general has ordered an inquiry into whether it documents criminal offenses or an attempt to destabilize the country.

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** OCCRP Website Hit by Sophisticated DDoS Attack
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For the last few days, we’ve been fighting a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack ([link removed]) from highly resourced actors trying to shut down our website and make OCCRP’s reporting inaccessible.

As our security and web teams worked around the clock to beat back these attacks, we asked for help to continue to bolster our infrastructure — and many of you responded with donations.

Your backing makes it possible for us to fight back more effectively.

If you’d like to help strengthen our efforts, you can donate here → ([link removed])


** News Briefs
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* Romanian and British authorities have dismantled ([link removed]) an alleged organized crime network accused of trafficking young women from Romania to the United Kingdom for sexual exploitation.
* Lebanon’s former central bank governor Riad Salame has been charged ([link removed]) over his alleged role in a $44.8 million embezzlement scheme, which prosecutors say is part of a broader case in which more than $8 billion in public funds are alleged to have been stolen.
* Malaysia’s anti-corruption authorities have seized ([link removed]) millions of dollars in cash, gold and luxury goods, and frozen company bank accounts, as part of a widening probe into alleged corruption in military procurement, suspected bribery and money laundering, in which 23 people including military personnel have been arrested so far.
* British authorities have arrested ([link removed]) six people and searched seven sites in the U.K. as part of a probe into alleged bribery and fraud by the former management of U.K.-listed social housing investment company Home REIT — and wrongdoing believed to total 300 million pounds (nearly $404 million).
* Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities have searched ([link removed]) the Kyiv offices of opposition party Batkivshchyna, led by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, as part of an investigation into the alleged bribery of lawmakers in exchange for parliamentary votes. Criminal charges are being prepared.
* French authorities are investigating ([link removed]) the killing of a 71-year-old former Corsican nationalist leader, who was shot long-range at his mother’s funeral.
* Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli appeared ([link removed]) in court this week on bribery charges, pleading not guilty over allegedly accepting bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.
* Turkish authorities have issued ([link removed]) takedown directives to independent news site Kısa Dalga, ordering the removal of multiple articles about money laundering, corruption, organized crime, and politically sensitive issues.


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