Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Wikipedia coverage: Read the full Wikipedia article, including its references. The material below is the existing Deep Politics Wiki article.

International non-governmental organisation

Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project  link Facebook Twitter Website
File:Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.png
Abbreviation	OCCRP
Formation	2006
Founders	Paul Radu, Drew Sullivan
Type	International non-governmental organisation
Integrity Initiative connected group, sharing an Amsterdam mailbox with Bellingcat

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) was created by Paul Radu and Drew Sullivan in 2006. It shares an interest in "Russian Propaganda" with the Integrity Initiative, and is a partner of Bellingcat.

Own description

It is a cross-border network of Eastern European independent media and non-profit organisations, counting the Rise Project and Novaya Gazetta (the newspaper Anna Politkovskaya – the Russian journalist murdered in 2006 for opposing Vladimir Putin – worked for) among its members.

By publishing freely-accessible, groundbreaking investigative articles in English and Russian, the OCCRP hopes to help local populations realise the impact of organised crime and corruption on their lives.

With a resource centre and data visualisations, as well as all the documents used to support the articles freely available, the OCCRP also has something of an educational mission: to inspire people to pursue their own investigations.

Funding

The groups main sponsors are connected to the US deep state, with predictable consequences on its reporting. An investigation by Mediapart (France), Drop Site News (US), Il Fatto Quotidiano (Italy) and Reporters United (Greece), published in 2024, revealed that:

• It is a US military figure and senior civil servant, a retired reserve force colonel who is today attached to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who was behind the first US government funding of the OCCRP;
• The US government still provides about half of the OCCRP’s yearly budget - some comes from the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs;
• The US government has the right to veto “key personnel” within the OCCRP;
• The OCCRP is not able to use US funds to investigate US interests, while some of those funds are given specifically for investigations into countries that are regarded by Washington as enemies.

The German NDR is said to have removed itself from the investigation last minute and is not publishing it's findings, possibly after having been pressured by the OCCRP, which they deny.

Own money laundering

Sullivan said the OCCRP laundered money from "sensitive donors" for other journalists organizations. He said, "OCCRP does that for its member organizations. We will take the money and pass it on to other journalists. Launder money legally, move the money away so there is not a direct connection between you and the donor." He suggested other groups should do the same.

Activities

The group's activities overlap with those of the Integrity Initiative. It publishes its stories through local media and in English and Russian through its website.

The Amsterdam mailbox for its headquarters is in the same building as Bellingcat's. No other company has offices in the building.

Funding

OCCRP has more than 200 staff in some 60 countries and works as a hub for local reporters around the world. Between 2014 and 2023, the US government provided more than half (52%) of OCCRP's funding, totaling at least $47 million since its founding. Other NATO countries have also contributed significant amounts over the last decade.

Panama Papers

Full article: 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, where the focus f.ex. was on "how friends close to" Russian President Vladimir Putin were receiving large sums of money through offshore companies, but conspicuously few revelations of US activities.

Azerbaijani Laundromat

Full article: Azerbaijani laundromat

Russian Laundromat

Full article: Russian Laundromat

The group's looked at an massive money laundering scheme, the Russian Laundromat, that allegedly moved tens of billions of dollars into Europe using offshore companies, fake loans and bribed Moldovan judges.

"Person of the Year Award"

Since 2012, OCCRP has dedicated a "Person of the Year Award" that "recognises the individual or institution that has done the most to advance organised criminal activity and corruption in the world", and decidedly has a tilt against Western official enemies, like: Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Nicolas Maduro, Rodrigo Duterte. It gave the award to Alexander Lukashenko (2021) after widespread protests against his rule and Bashar al-Assad (2024), after a successful regime change operation in Syria.

Database

The OCCRP serves archives of hacked information (like the HBGary e-mail leak), as well as other documents that have become public and a service by which to find searchable public databases by country or region.