OCCRP Investigations Report June 23, 2022

OCCRP INVESTIGATIONS Jersey Tax Shelter Leak Exposes Wall Street Trading Activities of Ghislaine Maxwell’s Family OCCRP and the Miami Herald show how members of the notorious Maxwell family hid their fortune beyond the reach of creditors and legal adversaries. Read the full story.  The Big Picture: Questions have swirled about the source of the family’s wealth since the mysterious 1991 death of U.K. media mogul Robert Maxwell. His daughter Ghislaine’s recent conviction for trafficking underage girls to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein cast a fresh spotlight on their finances. This investigation shows how some of the Maxwell fortune was kept away from prying eyes.  --------------------   New Albanian Airport Raises Cronyism, Environmental Concerns Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has promised a new airport on the southern coast would create jobs and boost tourism. But our new investigation raises questions about the process for choosing the politically connected consortium that will build it. Environmentalists say the project will cause irreparable damage to one of the largest wetlands on the Mediterranean. Rama’s government has removed protections in part of the reserve where it will be built — a decision the EU said was illegal.   The Big Picture: The airport is a political coup for Rama, cementing alliances with Turkey’s government and controversial Kosovar businessman and politician Behgjet Pacolli. But it’s unclear if the airport is even viable — and Albanian taxpayers will be on the hook if it fails. THE OCCRP NETWORK  Oštro HR: Our Croatian member center reported on the family vacation of the country’s finance minister.  Zdravko Marić and his family stayed at a luxury hotel for what appears to be a considerable discount from market rate.  Watchdog: Our Sri Lankan partner has a fact-checking platform, where they verify or debunk the rumors that have been swirling during the country’s current economic crisis. Rest of World, which reports on global tech stories, profiled the project.   Slidstvo.Info: Our Ukrainian member center, whose website is now blocked in Russia, made a video about Ukrainians born and raised in Crimea who have joined the Russian war effort against Kiev.   Direkt36: The co-founder of our Hungarian member center published an essay in Nieman Reports about how journalists should conduct themselves when they’re being targeted by the state. ORGANIZED CRIME NEWS  Anniversary of Boško Buha Assasination: Twenty years ago, a senior Serbian police official, Boško Buha, was shot and killed in a planned terror campaign aimed at panicking Serbian citizens and destabilizing the reformist national government, which had taken over from Slobodan Milošević after the dictator’s ouster. The assassins were tied to a Serbian-American criminal syndicate that eventually morphed into what we call Group America. You can read more about this global crime group here.   Dangerous Trend in the World of Weapons: Shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missile launchers are proliferating worldwide, according to a new report from the Small Arms Survey. CORRUPTION NEWS  Alexei Navalny Moved To Notorious Penal Colony: The incarcerated Russian opposition leader indicated on Instagram that he has been transferred to the IK-6 Federal Penitentiary Colony, considered Russia’s scariest prison.  Kazakhstan’s Anti-Corruption Efforts Have a Long Way to Go: Despite Kazakhstan’s recent push to curb graft after historic anti-government protests, the country continues to be plagued by corruption, according to a new report from the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body. OCCRP EVENTS 1) Aspen Ideas Festival: OCCRP Co-Founders Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu will talk about dark money and corruption with Bill Browder, a prominent Kremlin critic, and NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. Tickets here.   June 27 at 8:30 p.m.  2) Investigative Reporters & Editors Conference: OCCRP journalists will be at two sessions at IRE22, which will be held in Denver.  Paul Radu and Pavla Holcová, founder of our Czech member center, at “Investigating the New Organized Crime”. June 23 at 10:15 a.m. MT OCCRP Senior Middle East Editor Rana Sabbagh at  “The Year in International Investigations.” June 24 at 11:30 a.m. MT P.S. Thank you for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply with any feedback.  Copyright © 2022 Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, All rights reserved. Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project