Call it the Laundromat. It’s a complex system for laundering more than $20 billion in Russian money stolen from the government by corrupt politicians or earned through organized crime activity. It was designed to not only move money from Russian shell companies into EU banks through Latvia, it had the added feature of getting corrupt or uncaring judges in Moldova to legitimize the funds. The state-of-the-art system provided exceptionally clean money backed by a court ruling at a fraction of the cost of regular laundering schemes. It made up for the low costs by laundering huge volumes. The system used just one bank in Latvia and one bank in Moldova but 19 banks in Russia, some of them controlled by rich and powerful figures including the cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The bank theft was so outsized and bold that citizens of the Republic of Moldova came out in the streets this past May by the thousands to protest: “We want our billion back!”
The Russian Laundromat, a large multi-billion money laundering machine uncovered last year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) was operating from a small town near Kyiv.
When US$ 20 billion in dirty money swirled out of Russia and into Europe in one of the biggest money laundering operations yet uncovered in Eastern Europe...
It may be the biggest money-laundering operation in Eastern Europe -- a virtual laundromat operating through banks and companies connected to powerful people in the region.
The Laundromat -- the biggest money-laundering operation yet uncovered in post-Soviet territory—was unusually well connected.
A Russian banker bought the hotel complex for € 11.8 million and plans to turn it into a 5-star luxury complex.
Ruslan Milchenko, formerly with the Russian police, today heads the anti-corruption agency Analitika and Bezopasnost (Analyses and Security) and knows all about Moscow-style money...
Law enforcement reports obtained by OCCRP indicate that one of the oldest and biggest banks in the Republic of Moldova, Moldindconbank, has been used in the biggest money laundering operation in Eastern Europe in recent years.
Banking records obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) indicate that the Latvian bank Trasta Komercbanka was the final destination for billions of dollars that left Russia in a massive money laundering scheme.
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What connects terrorists in Iraq, cleaning ladies in Ukraine, and dodgy businessmen in Turkey? Vegetables and tax fraud. A series of scams helped Al Qaeda and hurt Romanian tax officials to the tune of at least € 50 million.
Montenegro has long desired to become a Balkan Monte Carlo. But instead it has become something unique in the Balkans -- a crime state where organized crime, government and business seamlessly work together in an Unholy Alliance.
OCCRP has put together a list of the world's most wanted people. The list is based on nominations from OCCRP editors and reporters.
Welcome to JailCrunch, an interactive investigative graphic from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its member organizations. JailCrunch visualizes prison data across Eastern Europe and compares inmate...
See the documents everyone is talking about - documents the Ukrainian president tried to destroy.
(VIS) is a data visualization platform designed to assist investigative journalists, activists and others in mapping complex business or crime networks. Our aim is to help investigators understand and explain corruption, organized crime and other...
