🇲🇹 NEW: Steward, a U.S. healthcare company at the center of Malta’s biggest-ever corruption scandal, paid over $7 million to British intelligence firms for work that included covert surveillance and digging up dirt on its critics. One target of a firm hired by Steward was Malta’s former minister of health, who had clashed with Steward over its implementation of a contract to manage and renovate Maltese hospitals. A false story claiming he had accepted a large bribe was planted in the media. Another — a British businessman who ran a financial research company that issued a negative report about the healthcare firm — was surveilled in his home. Payments for the intelligence fees were made via Steward’s division, which was largely funded by Maltese taxpayer money. Steward did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the private intelligence work it funded, but had previously denied wrongdoing in relation to the hospital deal. While the hospital scandal has rocked Malta to its core, Steward’s efforts to silence its critics have remained unreported until now. Read more in our investigation https://lnkd.in/eeBcHzrR #malta #healthcare #hospital #corruption #spy #intelligence #surveillance
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🚀 Join OCCRP as a Development Intern and help expand the pool of available resources for fighting crime and corruption worldwide. 📍 Location: Remote 🗓️ Start Date: September, 2024 💵 Stipend: Yes ⏳ Application Deadline: August 6, 2024 You will: • Identify and research donors, prepare fundraising briefs, and assist with grant proposals • Organize engagements and create donor communication • Help process gifts and maintain fundraising data To apply: Email your cover letter, resume, and writing samples to [email protected]. More info: https://lnkd.in/eVPhHtGW
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IPYS Venezuela has given first-place honors to our joint investigation that revealed rare details about the murky world of Venezuela’s illicit gold trade. Produced in partnership with Armando.Info and El Correo del Caroní, the story shows how the metal was trafficked into Brazil, destined for the U.S., India, and the United Arab Emirates. It also shows how two alleged smuggling operations concealed the true origins of illicit gold mined in protected indigenous territory. Click here to read it in English: https://lnkd.in/gnTqXr_2 #gold #smuggling #trafficking #Venezuela #indiginous
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Our oceans face immense threats: eight million metric tons of plastic waste annually, 26 million tons of resources illegally fished each year, and numerous endangered species. Companies violate laws, mafias profit from threatened species, and good practices supervisors are often disappeared. OCCRP's South America Editor, Daniela C., will be joining Mongabay Latam’s editor, Michelle C., to hold a master class on 'How to investigate the oceans without drowning in the attempt' at Fundación Gabo’s 2024 Gabo Festival. In this master class, the journalists will reveal the process of investigating oceanic illegality, share tools like satellite monitoring for tracking fishing fleets, and detail the routes of illegal trafficking. https://lnkd.in/eJca4XQa
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🇪🇬 NEW: A private jet at the center of a mysterious fake gold smuggling case in Zambia belongs to Ibrahim al-Organi, an Egyptian tycoon with close connections to his country’s military and gov’t. Last August, Zambia seized the jet, arrested 10 people, and confiscated $5.7 million in cash, along with five guns and 127 kilograms of fake gold bars. Speculation about the aircraft’s owner has swirled around the case since then. Legal documents obtained by OCCRP show the owner is al-Organi, who has close connections to his country’s military and government. In an affidavit, al-Organi stated that he had no connection with the Egyptians who chartered the flight from Cairo to Lusaka. https://lnkd.in/epzJMeAM #smuggling #privatejet #egypt #zambia
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📣 OCCRP is hosting a live webinar about the domestic and international operations of a pervasive Italian organized crime group on Thursday, June 27, 2024 at 5pm CET. You can join by making a donation to OCCRP. https://lnkd.in/gtFC9VXj #Ndrangheta #italy #mafia
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🎉 The East-West Center has recognized Inside PNG's news editor Sincha Dimara with the “Journalists of Courage and Impact” award. Inside PNG is based in Papua New Guinea and is one of our newest member centers. Congratulations to Sincha! https://lnkd.in/g5hi7zVg
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In 2020, the Financial Action Task Force urged the UAE to “take urgent action to effectively stop the criminal financial flows that it attracts.” Finding the UAE’s efforts unsatisfactory, FATF put the country two years later on its gray list, which means increased monitoring of measures taken by the country to mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing. But FATF removed the UAE from its gray list this year, announcing that the country had made “significant progress,” including improvements in the ability to investigate and prosecute violators. An OCCRP-led investigation, Dubai Unlocked, called that decision into question. Now, FATF says it will probe findings from the investigation as it assesses the UAE’s efforts to improve its financial sector. https://lnkd.in/gPBXJc_y #DubaiUnlocked #FATF #UAE
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🇬🇧NEW: Reporters have discovered the Conservative Party accepted a £50,000-pound donation from a firm called Pulse Accounting linked to scandal-hit businessman Doug Barrowman, husband of Conservative member of the House of Lords Baroness Michelle Mone. The party donation in 2020 was made months after a company secretly owned by Barrowman, PPE Medpro, signed large government contracts to supply personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Both Barrowman and Mone are already under scrutiny over the PPE deals, which came after an introduction from Mone to government ministers helped fast-track the company’s bids, according to a parliamentary report. As an Isle of Man resident, Barrowman would not have been permitted to donate to British political parties unless he had registered as an overseas voter. Reporters found that at the time of the donation, Pulse Accounting was owned by one of Barrowman’s business associates, and was previously owned by an offshore trust company directed by two of Barrowman’s employees. “There are grounds to investigate whether this was really the money of Mr Barrowman … not least of all the fact that a lucrative government contract had just been handed to his PPE Medpro company,” said Gavin Millar, a barrister and expert in elections law. He called for the Electoral Commission to investigate whether the contribution was lawful. #uk #covid #covid19UK #donations
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NEW: Greek authorities are investigating whether fireworks launched from a yacht caused a brush fire. Crew members have been arrested, but wealthy Kazakh guests were allowed to leave the following day by private jet. Reporters obtained a manifest showing that guests included Daniyar Abulgazin, one of Kazakhstan’s richest men, along with Aidan Suleimenova, who heads one of the country’s biggest charities. Umut Shayakhmetova, CEO of Halyk Bank, was also on board. So was Beimbet Shayakhmetov, a former top manager of Kazakhstan’s national oil company. None of them replied to requests for comment before publication. The investigation is ongoing, and the mayor of Hydra said he would seek compensation from those responsible for the blaze.
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