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NEW INVESTIGATIONS
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🇷🇸 Serbian Gov’t Agency Accused of Disfiguring a Skyline 🇷🇸 ([link removed])
Belgrade is littered with hundreds of thousands of illegal buildings erected without the necessary government permission. Many are unsafe and violate building codes.
But sources say it was easy to get them retroactively “legalized" by paying bribes to the "Secretariat for the Legalization of Buildings.”
Several construction industry insiders accused Nemanja Stajić, who until recently headed the Secretariat, of presiding over this corrupt system. He is now being questioned by the authorities.<< Read the full story >> ([link removed])
📜 Some Historical Background: Getting permission to erect a building was incredibly difficult in Belgrade after the fall of Yugoslavia and the war in Kosovo, which resulted in a flood of refugees and sanctions from the United States.
As a result, many local developers built illegally in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Secretariat for the Legalization of Buildings was launched in 2015 to evaluate which illegal structures met building codes, then bring them into the formal economy.
🌐 The Big Picture: News of building collapses and construction accidents are commonplace in Belgrade. This investigation shows how alleged corruption has created risks and undermined quality of life in the Serbian capital.
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🇨🇭 Credit Suisse Accounts Linked to ‘Taiwan’s Enron’ 🇹🇼 ([link removed])
The #SuisseSecrets leak shows the girlfriend of disgraced Taiwanese businessman Sun Daocun held millions in her accounts at Credit Suisse.
When police began to investigate Sun, his girlfriend, actress Yen Ling-Ning, opened three Credit Suisse accounts that later swelled with millions of Swiss Francs. << Read the full story >> ([link removed])
Who is Sun Daocun? The Taiwanese businessman was jailed for his role in a $700 million embezzlement scheme that has been called the Taiwanese version of the Enron scandal. He died in prison in 2021.
🌐 The Big Picture: Experts say the discovery of Yen’s Swiss bank accounts raises the possibility that Sun moved his assets under her name to avoid them being seized by Taiwanese authorities, who were unaware of their existence until now.
Not familiar with Suisse Secrets? This project exposed how Credit Suisse ([link removed]) , Switzerland’s second largest bank, catered to criminals, spies, and corrupt officials for decades.
Join the fight against corruption.
SUPPORT OCCRP ([link removed])
** THE OCCRP NETWORK
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🇰🇬 Kloop: A popular uprising overthrew Kyrgyzstan’s government in 2020. Our local member center summarizes this historic moment ([link removed]) in Central Asia’s most democratic country.
🇷🇸 CINS: Our Serbian member center reports on a handful of individuals who overloaded government agencies with what appear to be bogus Freedom of Information requests ([link removed]) , then filed legal complaints when they didn’t receive the data in a timely manner.
Since the report was published, one person who filed 1,200 requests withdrew their complaints ([link removed]) .
🇱🇰 Watchdog: Our Sri Lankan member center continues to host an Ask Me Anything-style forum ([link removed]) on various social media channels, focusing on the country’s economic crisis.
🇳🇬 Premium Times: Our Nigerian member center reports thatShell’s Trans-Niger Pipeline, which can transport about 180,000 barrels of crude per day, will resume operations ([link removed]) after being shut down in June due to theft.
** TIPS FOR INVESTIGATORS
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🔎 Using Comtrade: How did OCCRP uncover Big Tobacco’s role in oversupplying cigarettes in West African war zones?
We used Comtrade, a database run by the United Nations that aggregates trade information from 200 countries, including a few opaque jurisdictions.
Learn how you can use Comtrade in your investigations in ‘OCCRP:Unreported’ ([link removed])
** MORE CORRUPTION NEWS
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Bosnian Leader Sanctioned — The U.S. sanctioned Fadil Novalić ([link removed]) , the prime minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the country’s autonomous entities, for his alleged involvement in corruption
Corrupt Fishing Deal in Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities arrested two government officials for allegedlyhelping fishermen illegally operate ([link removed]) on the Danube river for a fee.
Pakistan’s Former First Daughter Acquitted — A Pakistani court reversed the conviction of Maryam Nawaz ([link removed]) , the daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, for alleged corruption related to her purchase of luxury London flats uncovered in the Panama Papers.
** MORE ORGANIZED CRIME NEWS
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Kardashian Crypto Scam — U.S. authoritiesfined reality television star Kim Kardashian for advertising EtherumMax ([link removed]) on her Instagram account without disclosing her financial ties to the company.
Tortoise Traffickers Convicted — In Ecuador, three people were found guilty for trafficking protected species from the Galápagos Islands ([link removed]) , including the critically endangered giant tortoise.
Israel Mob Boss Assassinated — Benny Shlomo, the alleged leader of Israel's Shlomo crime family, was gunned down on Monday ([link removed]) at a gas station outside of Tel Aviv.
Shlomo’s is the latest death in a spate of gangland violence which has erupted within the city’s underground.
P.S. Thank you for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply with any feedback.
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