NEW INVESTIGATION

🇷🇸 Israeli Disinformation Expert Linked to Serbian Smear Campaign — In 2021, Serbian finance minister Siniša Mali appeared on TV brandishing a report claiming that an opposition figure held offshore accounts full of stolen money.

OCCRP and partners obtained a copy of Mali’s report and found it looks near-identical to one pitched by a notorious disinformation-for-hire expert.

Our latest #StoryKillers investigation suggests ex-Israeli special forces operative Tal Hanan was behind the operation. > Read the full story

🌐 The Big Picture: Tal Hanan has a history of using disinformation and hacking to meddle in global politics.

In mid-2022, undercover reporters working on the #StoryKillers project approached Hanan’s team posing as intermediaries for a potential client looking to delay an election in Africa. Over several meetings, Hanan and his team pitched their tactics to spread disinformation and derail democracy.

🇷🇺 OUR RUSSIAN NETWORK 🇷🇺

Our Russian member center, IStories, has continued its award-winning investigative work from exile, devoting much of its coverage to Russian atrocities in Ukraine and life under Vladimir Putin’s ever-more-repressive rule. Here’s some of their recent work (in Russian):

➡️ Tracking Dissidents: Leaked documents from Roskomnadzor, the agency that oversees much of Russia’s censorship regime, show that it keeps detailed reports about Russians who join protests. Using this data, IStories maps out where and why demonstrations occur in the country. 

➡️ Wagner Casualties: The Russian mercenary organization Wagner is a major player in the invasion of Ukraine. Several relatives of these mercenary fighters say Wagner failed to tell them when their loved one died or where they were buried. Instead, they relied on a popular Telegram channel for information.

➡️ Dissident Goes Local: IStories spoke with a former organizer in Alexei Navalny’s organization, who has now turned his attention to advocating for local issues in Chuvashia, a predominantly Turkic region in western Russia.

MORE FROM THE OCCRP NETWORK

🇹🇬 l’Alternative: Our Togolese partner is under attack. Two journalists at the outlet were sentenced to three years in prison for insulting authorities and spreading false statements on social media.

The charges stem from a YouTube broadcast in which they discussed corruption allegations against government ministers. Both were able to flee Togo before being apprehended. 


🇮🇹 IrpiMedia: Our Italian member center reports that more migrants seeking asylum in Europe are flocking to Calabria, the mafia-plagued region in Italy’s south. In 2022, roughly 18,000 migrants, mostly from the Middle East and South Asia, arrived in Calabria. 


🇰🇿 Vlast: Our Kazakh member center reports that plans to develop pipelines and maritime capabilities along the Caspian Sea are unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon. One expert said Russia opposes the infrastructure project for geopolitical and mercantile reasons. 


🇰🇬 Kloop: Our Kyrgyz member center made a video about a February meeting between the country’s current president and his predecessors, including Sooronbay Jeenbekov, who was ousted in an uprising in 2020. Reconciliation between former leaders could result in greater peace for the politically-divided Central Asian nation.


🇭🇺 Atlatszo: Our Hungarian member center continues to report on the travel expenses of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his allies in government. This week, they reveal that Orban and an entourage of 40 people racked up a bill of 5.5 million Hungarian forints (roughly $15,610) for a one-night hotel stay in Vienna — a short drive from Budapest.

OCCRP DISCUSSION ON ORGANIZED CRIME

💻 How the New Mafia Really Works — Don’t miss our next OCCRP Discussion! On Tuesday, our Serbian colleague Stevan Dojčinović will share his experiences investigating organized crime. 

You can join webinars like these by making a donation to OCCRP. If you’ve already donated in the past year, reply to this email and we’ll send you a registration link.

Dojčinović has reported on the inner workings of some of Europe’s most pervasive drug trafficking gangs, including the Kavač and Škaljari clans as well as the mysterious Serbian syndicate known as Group America, which has rumored ties to the CIA. 

Don’t worry if you can’t attend. Members will receive a recording of the discussion once it’s over.

OCCRP HAS IMPACT

🇮🇶 Iraq’s central bank has launched lawsuits against officials at North Bank for allegedly embezzling nearly $340 million.

North Bank was at the center of a 2021 OCCRP investigation into a conflict of interest involving a former chairman of the bank. We revealed that his companies received loans with weak collateral from North Bank to rebuild schools — few of which were completed to government standards. 

PROFILE: WHO IS RIAD SALAME?

🇱🇧 Lebanon’s Offshore Governor: After months of delays, Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salame finally appeared in a Beirut court last week to face embezzlement charges.

Several European countries have also launched probes against Salame. At least one of them was partially informed by an OCCRP investigation. 

On top of the accusations of financial crime, Salame and his monetary policies are also frequently blamed for Lebanon’s historic economic crisis. 

We explain Salame’s influence, and the allegations against him, in this explainer.

MORE CORRUPTION NEWS

Thai officials under political pressure revoked an arrest warrant for a powerful senator charged with drug trafficking, according to testimony leaked to OCCRP and Prachatai. If true, the case represents a blow to judicial independence.

Dominican police detained three former ministers over alleged embezzlement, prompting riots in the capital as opposition supporters accused prosecutors of politically motivated arrests.

MORE ORGANIZED CRIME NEWS

Inside a fake shipment of peanuts, Vietnamese authorities discovered seven tons of ivory — the equivalent of as many as 150 slaughtered elephants.

Brazilian police rescued 19 Paraguayans trapped as slaves in an illegal cigarette factory and forced to work 12-hour days with no breaks.