Greetings from Sarajevo,

When dissidents flee to the United States, how far will their governments go to get them back? 

Today, we reveal that Rwanda, a U.S. ally, repeatedly gave Americans authorities false information about regime opponents in hopes that they would be sent back to the repressive Central African state.

The FBI was aware of this disinformation campaign well before Rwanda orchestrated the kidnapping of a prominent critic living in Texas.

But before we delve into the latest from the OCCRP network, we wanted to make sure you were aware of a potentially dangerous situation facing our colleagues in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Zoran Čegar, a Bosnian police official, threatened journalists at our member center, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN), after they exposed his secret real estate empire — some of which he appears to have acquired illegally. “Don’t make me rip your throat out,” he said.

Čegar has considerable influence in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities that make up the country, and is widely known for defending Sarajevo during the mid-90s siege. But he also has a long history of extorting and threatening those who get in his way — and has nevertheless occupied a number of senior positions. 

Even if you don’t live in the Balkans, you can help our colleagues by sharing our recent report on Čegar. 

Now, here’s the latest on global crime and corruption:

NEW INVESTIGATIONS

🇷🇼 Rwanda Plays Dirty To Claw Back Dissidents — A classified FBI report shows Rwandan intelligence deliberately misled U.S. agencies as it carried out operations against activists and political opponents in the United States.

The FBI was aware of these activities long before prominent dissident and permanent U.S. resident Paul Rusesabagina was kidnapped by Rwanda in an elaborate scheme.

Rwandan intelligence fed false or misleading information about Kagame’s political opponents to U.S. officials, a tactic known as “poison pen,” in the hopes of getting asylum applications rejected or critics deported.

The report we obtained showed that the FBI knew about these tactics against dissidents, including Rusesabagina, from at least 2011, nine years before his kidnapping. Rwanda repeatedly claimed, that these activists were tied to militant groups in the region, but a U.S. investigation found no evidence of this, the FBI report says. >> Read the full story. 

🌐 The Big Picture: Rwandan President Paul Kagame is a strong ally of the United States, which gave his regime $147 million in 2021 alone, despite Kagame’s strict repression of the population and targeting of dissidents abroad. 

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🇷🇺 Wagner’s Golden Deal in Sudan 🇸🇩 Documents obtained by OCCRP and Le Monde reveal new details about how the notorious Russian mercenary group Wagner secured a stake in Sudan’s gold industry. 

Its strategy involved working with companies controlled by the African country’s brutal military. >> Read the full story

🌐 The Big Picture: Wagner has a growing presence throughout Africa, where it often offers security services in exchange for access to resources. This investigation examines how these Russia-Sudan relationships are forged.

OCCRP ANALYSIS

🇰🇬 History Shows Censorship Doesn’t Work — “No news today. Media under pressure in KG.”

This message was published on news portals throughout Kyrgyzstan in a show of solidarity with Radio Azattyk, an OCCRP partner whose website was recently blocked by the government.

As our Kyrgyz colleague explains in this op-ed, previous governments that have attempted to silence Azattyk, one of the country’s most prominent publications, have not always fared so well. >> Read the full story

OCCRP HAS IMPACT

🇮🇶 Iraqi Central Bank Acts: The Central Bank of Iraq has taken custody of the North Bank for Finance after OCCRP uncovered how one of its owners misspent public funds meant to rebuild Iraqi schools.

You can read that OCCRP investigation here.

🇧🇦 Support for Our Bosnian Colleagues: Zoran Čegar was suspended from his senior police position after violently threatening journalists from our Bosnian member center, CIN.

Here’s the CIN investigation that exposed Čegar’s secret real estate empire, some of which he appears to have acquired illegally.

THE OCCRP NETWORK

🇭🇺 Atlatszo: Our Hungarian member center reports how a state company purchased Nemzeti Sport, President Viktor Orban’s favorite newspaper, for an undisclosed amount.

🇷🇺 IStories: Our Russian member center has a video about how Germany transitioned from fascism to democracy, and what lesson this experience may hold for today’s Russia. The subtitles are in English. 

🇷🇴 Context: Our Romanian member center exposed that a prominent law school paid tens of thousands of lei to a company implicated in a corruption case.

The owner of the company received help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and got a job at a military academy despite being sentenced to prison for complicity in abuse of office.

🇲🇩 RISE Moldova: Our Moldovan member center reveals the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers who liaison with sympathetic politicians in the small Eastern European nation.

MORE CORRUPTION NEWS

Israel’s Bibi Wins Despite Corruption Case: Despite being on trial for corruption, Benjamin Netanyahu retook his seat as Israeli prime minister on Thursday. 

U.S. Politician’s Potential Conflict of Interest: Fair Fight Action, a voting rights nonprofit founded by Georgian gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, paid at least $9.4 million to the law firm of Allegra Lawrence-Hardy. Lawrence-Hardy is a close friend of Abrams, as well as her campaign chairwoman.

MORE ORGANIZED CRIME NEWS

Bari Politician Nabbed in Vote Buying Scheme: A city council member in the southern Italian city of Bari was arrested for working with a local mafia in a vote buying scheme. She allegedly paid between 25 and 50 euros for every vote and also agreed to turn a blind eye towards their activity in the region.

Spotting Organ-Harvesting Human Trafficking: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published a manual on how to investigate and prosecute human trafficking for the purpose of organ harvesting.