Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a United States non-governmental organization that fosters investigative journalism. It was founded in 2007 and specializes in organized crime and corruption.

It publishes its stories through local media and in English and Russian through its website. OCCRP works with and supports more than fifty independent media outlets across six continents. Throughout much of its existence, the majority of its budget was funded by the United States government via grants from various agencies. In 2025, this funding was frozen and OCCRP is now funded by other sources.

History

OCCRP was founded by veteran journalists Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu. Sullivan was serving as the editor of the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) in Sarajevo and Radu worked with the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism. The team paired with colleagues in the region on a story looking at energy traders, titled "The Power Brokers." The project showed that traders were buying power from state utilities at below production rates while the public was paying increasingly higher fees and experiencing widespread blackouts.

In March 2022, OCCRP was designated an undesirable organization in Russia.

Work Investigations

OCCRP has claimed the following totals as a result of its investigations since they began recording impact in 2009: More than US$12 billion in fines levied and assets seized by government agencies 1,083 government actions 841 arrests, indictments, or sentences 475 official investigations 309 civic actions 166 corporate actions 140 resignations or sackings of key figures, including a President, Prime Minister and CEOs of major international corporations The OCCRP has been involved in a number of high-profile investigations, including looking at the offshore services industry, organized crime ownership in football clubs, casinos and the security industry.

Magnitsky case In 2013, it investigated the Sergei Magnitsky case, the largest tax fraud in Russian history, and wrote that funds stolen from the Russian treasury ended up in a company now owned by the son of Moscow's former transportation minister. Some of the money was used to buy high-end real estate near Wall Street. US prosecutors have since sought to seize $18 million in property from the company.

Montenegro It published stories on Montenegro's long-time President and Prime Minister Milo Đukanović. Two series looked at the ties between Đukanović and organized crime. One series traced the President's family-owned bank, Prva Banka (First Bank), and how the president privatized it to his brother cheaply, moved massive state funds into the bank and then loaned the money out to his family, friends and organized crime on overly favorable terms. When the bank failed under the weight of these bad loans, the president bailed it out with taxpayer money. The Central Bank said the government lied about repaying the loan simply shuttling funds back and forth and claiming the loan was repaid. A second series examined how the president through his staff kept close relationships to international drug traffickers like Darko Saric, and that municipalities controlled by the president's party gave prime coastal property almost for free to Saric. It also wrote that the Italian mafia was smuggling cigarettes to Italy from an island off the coast of Montenegro owned by Đukanović's good friend Stanko Subotić and controlled by Đukanović's head of security.

Moldova It investigated an assassination attempt on a Russian banker which led the Moldovan government to ban the pro-Russian Patria political party from the 2014 elections and the party's leader to flee the country. It also looked at a massive money laundering scheme, the Russian Laundromat, that moved tens of billions of dollars into Europe using offshore companies, fake loans and bribed Moldovan judges. Some of the Russian banks involved were owned in part by Igor Putin, a cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Swedish telecom bribery scandal In 2015, working with SVT and the TT News Agency, the OCCRP uncovered that the Swedish/Finnish Telecom giant TeliaSonera (now Telia), Vimpelcom and other phone companies had paid about $1 billion in bribes. More than $800 million in assets were seized or frozen by law enforcement after the scandal. Vimpelcom attempted to negotiate a $775 million fine for their part in the bribes, but was fined $795 million, including a $230 million criminal penalty to both U.S. and Dutch authorities, and a $375 million penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. OCCRP, SVT and TT News Agency were awarded The Golden Shovel, the most important award for investigative journalism in Sweden.

Panama Papers OCCRP worked on the Panama Papers project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Süddeutsche Zeitung producing more than 40 stories on corruption through the use of offshore entities, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize Journalism. These included how friends close to Russian President Vladimir Putin were receiving large sums of money through offshore companies; how the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev owned a majority of his country's mining industry through offshore companies; and, how President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine had violated Ukrainian law and avoided taxes using offshore companies.

Troika Laundromat In 2019, OCCRP and 21 media partners discovered that Russia's former largest investment bank, Troika Dialog, had laundered $4.8 billion of funds. The so-called scheme, Troika laundromat, allowed funds to flow from Russian companies and figures into Europe and the US between 2003 and early 2013.

Formations House

In December 2019, Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) published "#29 Leaks" in partnership with the OCCRP and more than 20 outlets in 18 countries.

The 450 gigabytes of data came from Formations House (now The London Office), a "company mill" which registered and operated companies for clients included organized crime groups, state-owned oil companies, and fraudulent banks. The leak included emails, documents, faxes, and recordings of phone calls. Investigations revealed the firm ran a web of companies registered in Hong Kong, Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Pakistan, helped clients avoid anti–money laundering rules and had created banks in The Gambia in an attempt to create a tax haven. According to The Times, there was no evidence that Formations House did anything illegal but their investigation highlighted worrying vulnerabilities in the UK's defences against money laundering".

The release was compared to both the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers. Belgian tax authorities initiated an investigation based on data from this leak and from the Cayman National Bank and Trust leak published by DDoSecrets the prior month. Politicians in Sweden and the UK, including anti-corruption chief John Penrose said the leak showed the need for reforms on company creation and registration.

COVID-19 OCCRP has investigated fraud and corruption during COVID-19 relief efforts.

Russian asset tracker In March 2022, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the project launched the Russian asset tracker to showcase the assets of the oligarchs and other influential Russians who have links to the Russian president Vladimir Putin. In June 2022, the company revealed an investigation on LLCInvest.

Team Jorge In February 2023, together with The Guardian and other publications, the OCCRP uncovered a vast disinformation campaign codenamed Team Jorge, organized by ex-Israeli special forces operative Tal Hanan, which is alleged to have conducted electoral meddling in more than 30 countries over the course of several years.

NarcoFiles In November 2023, the OCCRP joined with more than 40 media partners including Cerosetenta / 070, Vorágine, the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP) and Distributed Denial of Secrets and journalists in 23 countries and territories for the largest investigative project on organized crime to originate in Latin America, producing the 'NarcoFiles' report. The investigation was based on more than seven million emails from the Colombian prosecutor's office which had been hacked by Guacamaya, including correspondence with embassies and authorities around the world. The files dated from 2001 to 2022 and included audio clips, PDFs, spreadsheets, and calendars. The investigation revealed new details about the global drug trade and over 44 tons of "controlled deliveries" carried out to infiltrate the drug trade and how criminals corrupt politicians, bankers, accountants, lawyers, law enforcement agents, hackers, logistics experts, and journalists in order to use logistical, financial, and digital infrastructures.

Cyprus Confidential

In November 2023, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Paper trail media and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and the OCCRP and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories produced the 'Cyprus Confidential' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin, mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in the Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned. Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to the investigation's findings in less than 24 hours, calling for reforms and launching probes.

Uzbekistan According to the OCCRP, Vlast, and iStories, Uzbekistan's exports to Russia have increased significantly since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 24, 2022), including cotton pulp and nitrocellulose. These components are key in the manufacture of explosives and gunpowder. At least two large Uzbek exporters worked with Russian military-industrial complex enterprises, and at least three Russian companies − Bina Group, Khimtrade and Lenakhim − sold Uzbek cotton pulp in Russia to military plants under US sanctions.

Bangladesh BSEC Chairman Bribe Scandal OCCRP has investigate on head of Bangladesh's capital markets regulator, Shibli Rubayat ul Islam, received payments from a bank account allegedly used in a $13-million fraud. Based on this investigation by Zulkarnain Saer Khan, the accused Shibli has been arrested and Anti-Corruption Commission of Bangladesh filed a case.

Dubai Unlocked In May 2024, OCCRP coordinated the publication of Dubai Unlocked, an investigative series involving more than 70 media outlets. Based on leaked data provided by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), the project documented ownership of hundreds of thousands of properties in Dubai. The investigation identified individuals, including alleged criminals, fugitives, political figures, and sanctioned persons, who collectively owned over 1,000 properties, suspected to be purchased with proceeds from corruption or other crimes.

The Steward Files In 2024, approximately 300,000 internal documents from Steward Health Care were leaked to OCCRP. The files were shared with The Boston Globe and The Times of Malta and revealed financial irregularities and management issues within the hospital chain. The investigation highlighted payments to consultants and lobbying efforts linked to government contracts and raised concerns about hospital administration practices.

Scam Empire