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September 11, 2026
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This week, a Maltese newspaper released audio recordings of the 2019 police interrogation of businessman Yorgen Fenech, following his shock acquittal for complicity in the 2017 car bomb killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.


** Caruana Galizia Murder Trial
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** Police Tapes Show Businessman Acquitted of Journalist's Murder Said He Initially Approved the Plot
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The Times of Malta has released the full recordings of businessman Yorgen Fenech’s 2019 police interrogations, following his dramatic acquittal earlier this month on charges of complicity in the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In the recordings, Fenech admitted to having greenlit the car bombing, but said he later tried to call it off. He also said that he provided money to a middleman, Melvin Theuma, that was intended to cover expenses for the hitmen after the murder.

Theuma, a taxi driver, was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony in the case. During the trial, he said he had acted as an intermediary between Fenech and the hitmen.

While Fenech was cleared of the murder, five other men are serving lengthy prison sentences in the case, including two brothers who planted and detonated the bomb, as well as two other people who supplied the military-grade explosive.

The case has become “symbolic of the fight for press freedom and the rule of law in Malta,” free press advocacy group Article 19 said in a statement ([link removed]) following Fenech’s acquittal, calling the verdict an “impediment to the global fight against impunity for the murder of journalists around the world.”

Read the full story → ([link removed] )


** OCCRP Video
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** Exposed: Putin's Secret Propaganda Weapon
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Russian PR firm Social Design Agency’s operations have been linked to a coordinated effort to fake news stories, stage hate crimes, and flood the West with disinformation ([link removed]) .

Thousands of leaked internal files and documents reveal a calculated strategy to sow discord and manipulate public perception across Europe — including a grotesque stunt last year in which severed pig’s heads were dropped outside French mosques.

Our new short documentary pulls back the curtain on the secret Kremlin playbook behind these provocations, tracing the chain of command directly to Vladimir Putin’s presidential administration — and providing a rare behind-the-scenes look inside a modern-day propaganda operation.


** More Reporting
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** Murder For Hire: Alleged Cross-Border Plot to Kill Twin Brothers in Cyprus
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Last month, a person using the handle “Sponge Jobb” posted a call for a hitman on the Signal messaging app, offering weapons, transport, and $60,000 in cryptocurrency.

An undercover Danish police officer applied for the job, triggering an international police operation, and leading investigators to an alleged murder-for-hire network, in which money, weapons, and suspected contract killers converged in Cyprus, where the hit was allegedly intended to take place.

Those are some of the details gathered by OCCRP member center CIReN from a Cypriot court, where authorities have submitted information gathered during their investigation into the alleged murder plot.

The targets were described in the Cyprus court only as twin brothers vacationing on the island. The possible motive for their murder has not been revealed.

Eight alleged participants in the plot have been arrested, including an Irish national, two Norwegians, and five Swedes.

A Swedish police superintendent told local media that the five Swedes were already known to authorities, and described the operation as “a fairly typical violence-as-a-service setup.”

Read the full story → ([link removed])


** Lack of Oversight Fuels Power Sector Corruption, Iraqi Lawmaker Says
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What is to blame for rampant corruption in Iraq’s public energy contracts?

Taha Al-Difai, head of the Iraqi Parliament's Integrity Committee, told OCCRP that an absence of government oversight on public energy contracts has allowed corruption to proliferate unchecked.

He said that the Federal Board of Supreme Audit currently reviews contracts only after they have been signed. Iraq’s parliament is drafting new legislation to bridge the regulatory gap, with the draft law scheduled for a first reading next week.

The comments come amid an ongoing crackdown on corruption launched under Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi, targeting high-ranking figures across key government sectors.

Last month the undersecretary of the Ministry of Electricity was arrested on charges of corruption and illicit enrichment, according to the official Iraqi News Agency. Authorities seized millions of dollars in cash and gold bars from his properties.

Read the full story → ([link removed])


** Ousted Bangladesh PM's Daughter Steps Down as WHO Regional Chief after Fraud Probe
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Saima Wazed, daughter of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, resigned this week from her role as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Southeast Asia regional director following internal fraud probes that left her unpaid for over a year.

In an emailed statement to OCCRP, Wazed, who assumed the regional director role in January 2024, confirmed she had submitted her resignation, maintaining she has been “cleared of any financial fraud charges” and possesses evidence to prove it.

“Now that the investigation has been completed, I have decided to resign and move on. I need to work and return to giving my services to the world,” she said.

In her resignation letter addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Wazed accused WHO leadership of waging a retaliatory, politically motivated "witch hunt" against her.

The 53-year-old was investigated by the U.N. health agency over allegations of financial fraud and misrepresenting her academic credentials during her post campaign.

According to independent outlet Health Policy Watch, the WHO launched the probe after Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission filed two cases against Wazed alleging fraud, forgery, and misuse of power. The WHO investigation found the allegations were unsubstantiated.

Wazed denied all wrongdoing, dismissing the claims as “rumors.”

Read the full story → ([link removed])


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** News Briefs
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* Three accountants have been charged ([link removed]) in Australia for allegedly helping an organized crime syndicate obtain tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent loans, which it used to finance "ghost cars" using stolen identities, before expanding into large-scale personal, business, and home-loan fraud.
* Turkish authorities have detained ([link removed]) 24 people and seized assets worth approximately $20.6 million in an operation targeting an international drug trafficking network allegedly directed from Belgium.
* Former Speaker of the Philippines House of Representatives Martin Romualdez, a cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., was arrested ([link removed]) on an anti-graft court-issued warrant linked to a 7.44-billion-peso ($118 million) plunder case involving alleged kickbacks from government flood-control and other infrastructure projects.
* Spanish authorities dismantled ([link removed]) an international cocaine and money laundering network tied to a shadow financial system known as the "Dubai Bank," arresting 21 people worldwide and identifying 20 million euros ($23.24 million) in illicit assets.
* Pierre Mirabaud, a former president of the Swiss Bankers Association and former partner at the private bank Mirabaud & Cie, was handed ([link removed]) a two-year suspended prison sentence for foreign bribery and money laundering. He was alleged to have funneled nearly 300 payments totaling 82.3 million Swiss francs ($101.7 million) to a senior Kuwaiti government official between 2000 and 2012. In exchange, the Kuwaiti official allegedly invested $595.2 million with the Geneva-based private bank.
* An Ecuadorian court has convicted ([link removed]) 15 people and five companies for laundering nearly $398 million in drug trade-linked funds through shell companies and commercial fronts between 2015 and 2025.
* Police in Malaysia dismantled ([link removed]) a drug syndicate and seized $6.79 million worth of MDMA following a raid on a makeshift laboratory, during which the group’s alleged ringleader was shot dead by police after he opened fire.
* Armenian authorities seized ([link removed]) valuables including paintings, firearms, medals, and jewelry from the home of former Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan, as part of a major corruption investigation and allegations he accepted real estate bribes worth $5.99 million for his sons, embezzled nearly $480,000 in state funds, and laundered illicit proceeds.

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