Mexican Cartels: “The Asian Connection”
10th December 2020
Mexican Cartels: “The Asian Connection”
Jorge A. posed proudly in front of the five-star hotel Radisson Blu Hotel Shanghai New World in January 2016. The photo’s caption set the tone for his business trip. “Busy working,” he gloomily wrote on Facebook. Jorge A. works for Corporativo Escomexa, a Mexican import-export company that specializes in the… Read More
Breaking Bad in Europe: Mexican “Cooks” in Service of Dutch Gangs
9th December 2020
Breaking Bad in Europe: Mexican “Cooks” in Service of Dutch Gangs
By Audrey Travère, Forbidden Stories, 8 December 2020 Forbidden Stories—Willem-Jan Joachems recalls May 10, 2019 perfectly. “This is where it all happened. Exactly in this spot.” For the journalist, it was the scoop of a lifetime. “The ship was laying there, while they were collecting evidence, and… Read More
Latin American crime cartels turn to crypto for money laundering
9th December 2020
Latin American crime cartels turn to crypto for money laundering
In April 2019, Mexican police arrested suspected human trafficker Ignacio Santoyo in a plush area of the Caribbean resort of Playa del Carmen after linking him to a prostitution racket extending across Latin America. Yet it was not the 2,000 women Santoyo is alleged to have blackmailed and sexually exploited… Read More
‘An MBA in Corruption’: How Top Oil Trader Paid Bribes for Years
9th December 2020
‘An MBA in Corruption’: How Top Oil Trader Paid Bribes for Years
For years, the world’s largest oil trading firm has maintained that it has “zero tolerance” for corruption. Now Vitol Inc. has admitted that it was paying bribes through a network of shell companies and sham contracts. As recently as July 2020, while publicly repeating those assurances, Vitol was… Read More
The Cartel’s Consul in Barcelona
7th December 2020
The Cartel’s Consul in Barcelona
By Antonio Baquero, Dana Priest, Nina Lakhani, Paloma Dupont de Dinechin, Joaquín Gil and Álex Gutiérrez, OCCRP, 6 December 2020 OCCRP — The government of Mexico made Fidel Herrera Beltrán its consul in Barcelona, but there was considerable doubt about his true loyalties and interests during his time in Spain. Read More
Spain Ex-King Submits Papers To Sort Out Tax Affairs
7th December 2020
Spain Ex-King Submits Papers To Sort Out Tax Affairs
Spain’s scandal-hit former king Juan Carlos I has submitted a declaration to the Spanish tax office seeking to put his financial situation in order, El Pais newspaper reported on Sunday. The voluntary declaration was presented by his lawyer with sources telling the paper the move was in connection with an… Read More
Burner phones and banking apps: Meet the Chinese ‘brokers’ laundering Mexican drug money
4th December 2020
Burner phones and banking apps: Meet the Chinese ‘brokers’ laundering Mexican drug money
Early next year, a Chinese businessman named Gan Xianbing will be sentenced in a Chicago courtroom for laundering just over $530,000 in Mexican cartel drug money. Gan, 50, was convicted in February of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money-transfer business that whisked cartel cash from U.S. drug sales offshore. Read More
Energy Trader Vitol Paying $163 Million to Settle Corruption, Manipulation Charges
4th December 2020
Energy Trader Vitol Paying $163 Million to Settle Corruption, Manipulation Charges
Swiss-based energy firm Vitol agreed to pay $163 million to settle criminal and civil charges that its employees paid bribes to gain an advantage when bidding for oil in Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador. Vitol’s deal with the Justice Department, announced Thursday in Brooklyn federal court, is the first in what… Read More
U.S. Chemical Companies Face Few Legal Risks, and the Cartels Bank On It
3rd December 2020
U.S. Chemical Companies Face Few Legal Risks, and the Cartels Bank On It
One November morning in 2015, a lawyer named Clark Jordan rose sheepishly from his chair to face the judge in a federal courtroom in eastern Pennsylvania. Jordan, then 51, had spent most of his adult life in corporate law, but this day was different. As a vice president of… Read More
Mexico issues warrant for ex-security chief accused of aiding cartel
1st December 2020
Mexico issues warrant for ex-security chief accused of aiding cartel
Mexico has issued an arrest warrant for a former security minister wanted on corruption charges and may request his extradition from the United States where he is being held awaiting trial, an official told Reuters. Ex-Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna pled not guilty last month to U.S. charges involving a… Read More
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